Thirty years after he built the Hermitage motel, Cliff Barry looks back with a mixture of emotions.
“After 30 years I thought I may have two or three motels, that was the original aim, but Rome wasn’t built in a day and it has taken me a lot longer than I would have expected,’’ he says.
“But it’s always been a very good business and I love it.
“I love the fact that I’ve been able to create something that I like, an atmosphere that I like.’’
After buying the Campbelltown Road site, Cliff decided he wanted to build a motel he himself would be happy to stay in.
“A lot of hotels are so sterile, and I’ve always myself preferred staying somewhere with character, so it’s been nice to be able to create something that I like and that is a bit different.
“I know it’s only a motel, a four star motel, but it’s got that nice big country homestead feel to it,’’ he says.
Those who have either stayed at the Hermitage or had dinner at the restaurant would know what Cliff is talking about.
Natural stone and timber finishes have certainly given the Hermitage individuality and character.
“We get a lot of people who stay here who love the fact the place looks homely,’’ Cliff says.
“When I bring my wife here, she says, why can’t you build us a home like this!’’
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The Hermitage is located on a gently sloping site at the eastern side of Campbelltown Road, just past the Rose Payten Drive turn off.
There are no vacant sites there now, but when a 26 year old fellow from Bondi called Cliff Barry checked it out in 1986 it was very different.
“I remember coming to Campbelltown the first time. And there was nothing here, just land, and the Macarthur Development Board had decreed that there should be a motel on this site,’’ he says.
“It was all just open space and every block had a For Sale sign on it.
“I had the pick of any of the blocks and they’d all been for sale for some time and this particular one had been for sale for 10 years.
“No-one would touch it because they felt it was a little too far out from Campbelltown!’’
The main street of Campbelltown is a kilometre away, if that far, from the Hermitage, but in any case young Cliff Barry wasn’t listening to the critics.
“Not being raised in Campbelltown, all I could see was the size of the land and the fact that it was definitely going to take off,’’ Cliff says.
“You could just tell.
“I mean Campbelltown was just starting to expand at that stage and the land was relatively cheap compared to the rest of Sydney.
“And because it hadn’t been sold for 10 years I went in and made a silly offer, which was to my shock accepted.
“And as soon as I signed the contract I was immediately told by about half a dozen people that I would go broke and what an idiot I was, and what am I doing, because who the hell is going to stay in a motel in Campbelltown, with no access off the main road.
“I guess I was fairly naïve at the time but I had faith and belief and after building it – it took me 18 months to complete the first stage, 24 rooms to start with – from the first night we had 60 per cent occupancy.
“And the place has been a success ever since.’’
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The Hermitage wasn’t Cliff Barry’s first motel.
After coming back from a trip to the US, where he was impressed with a chain of motels he saw across that country, Cliff started to think he could replicate something like that here.
“I built a little motel in Bankstown and it had 19 units,’’ he says.
“But I wanted something bigger, so I sold it, made a good profit on it and that enabled me to buy this block of land and do something bigger.’’
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A decade later The Hermitage – or Macarthur Motor Inn as it was known then – was about to undergo a massive transformation.
“I never had a restaurant and never wanted one,’’ Cliff says.
“Basically I loved the motel the way it was, 24 rooms, bed and breakfast, very high occupancy rate.
“However the Campbelltown Catholic club had plans to build a big hotel and I had a lot of corporate business then.
“The first question a businessman staying here asks is: where can I get a drink?
“And the second question is: where can I get a meal?
“And we’d always have to send them down to the local club or pub, and that was fine, but I knew when the Catholic Club built a big hotel we’d lose all of that business.”
In a way Cliff Barry was forced to build a restaurant and bar. But being the positive type, he decided he would build a good one.
“And once again everyone said, you’re mad, Campbelltown doesn’t want a good restaurant, it just wants fast food,’’ Cliff says.
“I wanted sophisticated dining at a reasonable price, and once again we built it and it’s been an incredible success.’’
The restaurant, which has won a stack of awards, is without peer in not just Campbelltown but Macarthur and South West Sydney.
It was called Hermitage and eventually Cliff changed the motel’s name to that as well.
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When the original application was approved in 1986 it was for three stages and Cliff Barry is about to embark on the final one.
“It means that this place will have an indoor pool, outdoor pool, sauna, gym, restaurant and bar, games room,’’ Cliff says.
“And I am even going to build a nine hole putt putt golf course. It will be like staying in a mini resort.
“If you stay in a serviced apartment that offers nothing else you’re stuck in that room. To me, for a family, that’s hell.’’
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Over the past 30 years Cliff Barry has got to know Campbelltown and its denizens pretty well.
“Thirty years ago I came out and thought, wow, this place with its beautiful rolling green hills is great,’’ he says.
“I was living in Bondi, which was packed, crowded, red brick units everywhere, pretty ugly if you ask me, and still is, and you come out here and you can breathe.
“And I thought it was beautiful, and that’s what really excited me about the place.’’
The Hermitage, which now has 36 rooms, employs about 25 people, most of them local.
Indeed its management is a bit of a family affair, something that Cliff is really pleased about.
Liz and Phil Genford have been motel managers for 15 years, while the restaurant and bar are run by another local couple, master chef John Nazim and his wife Chiler.
The Nazims have been at the Hermitage since the opening of the restaurant and bar.
“Over the years the standard of kids who come in to get jobs here, their quality, their ambition and their whole attitude is just amazing,’’ Cliff says.
“They come from great families, which all want to get ahead and that’s uplifted the whole area in the past 30 years.’’
