The Commercial Hotel in Curlewis is now closed, and the future of the venue and its five staff is unsure.
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The pub was purchased in December by Newcastle's Sam Cruickshank, who will now put it up for lease or sale.
Mr Cruickshank originally planned to run the pub but said "circumstances changed" and he was now unable to for "personal reasons".
"We're looking like either leasing or selling the pub the next few weeks," he said on Monday.
"It's looking like a few people are interested ... I hope we do [sell or lease it]. I'm actually pretty confident."
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Mr Cruickshank said he was "not sure" about what would happen to the five staff.
He purchased the historic pub from the Edmunds and the Schofields, who owned it for more than 30 years.
The co-owners were going to hand over the reins on December 13 but, when they found out it would be closed, they leased it back for five weeks. The lease ran out on Sunday.
Former licensee Mel McCulloch took to social media to farewell the pub patrons and thanked staff and the community for supporting the pub.
"This is not just a business but the hub of a small community; a place to meet and eat, support each other, have a yarn, to hold meetings and to raise money for a drought-ravaged community doing it tough," she wrote.
"Last year, the Curlewis community through the pub's Friday night raffles raised almost $7000, which went to the local hall, preschool, school, camp draft, Legacy, CWA, progress association and the local RFS. Not a bad effort for such a little place."
Mrs McCulloch said they were thankful to the staff and "so sorry that it has turned out this way".
"Your loyalty and hard work has been so humbling, particularly the last few crazy uncertain weeks, and we could not have done this without you," she wrote.
"Our fingers are crossed for a quick turnaround to an owner who cares about small communities more than just dollars ... we hope soon someone will love it as much as we have and as much as the community does."