The simple life with Sybil Leris

A quiet morning on the main street of Korumburra is where we find Sybil Leris, looking after the vintage treasures at Merchants. Let’s see what we can learn in our five-minute interview …

Interviewer: Tell me about yourself. Where are you from, and how long have you been here?

Sybil: I was born in the Foster Hospital a long time ago and escaped from the area as soon as I humanly could. I didn’t come back until 1997 when I bought the Loch Pub, the Royal Hotel in Loch, and ran that for many years.

Interviewer: So when did you finish doing that?
Sybil: A few years ago.

Interviewer: And now you’re...?
Sybil: I work here at Merchants a couple of days a week, and I love playing with people and nice things.

Interviewer: When you say "nice things," do you mean the things that come in here?
Sybil: All the beautiful stock. I love good clothing, vinyl records, books, and arranging things.

Interviewer: Are you a collector at home?
Sybil: Yes.

Interviewer: So what's your home like?
Sybil: What's my home like? It’s full of stuff.

Interviewer: Well, it’s a pub, so it’s full?
Sybil: I bought it when it was empty.

Interviewer: Oh, you still have the pub?
Sybil: Yep.

Interviewer: You just don’t run it as a pub?
Sybil: That’s right.

Interviewer: So you live in there now?
Sybil: Yep.

Interviewer: How cool is that?
Sybil: Fabulous.

Interviewer: It’s great to be a custodian of a piece of local history.
Sybil: Exactly.

Interviewer: How old is that pub?
Sybil: Built in 1917.

Interviewer: And it’s still in your hands?
Sybil: Yep.

Interviewer: Could you reopen it as a pub?
Sybil: You’d have to go through a lot of loopholes and hurdles.

Interviewer: So, this town—what do you love about the Burra?
Sybil: I love the way it’s evolving; it’s reinventing itself. When I was growing up as a kid, it was definitely a service town for the dairy farmers.

Next door, where there’s a coterie now, was a coal store. I love that people are discovering it and reinventing it.

Interviewer: And the town itself—the people in the town—they always talk about resilience. People needing to be resilient. We’ve come through COVID and all that sort of thing. What does it mean to you, the word "resilience"?
Sybil: It means using inner strength and sharing it too. Resilience can only happen if there are other people around who believe in the same things that you do.

Interviewer: Do you think we all sort of connect that way?
Sybil: On many levels, yes.

Interviewer: And Korumburra itself—what do you love more, the town or the people?
Sybil: I love both. I love the people and the architecture.

It’s a great combination—you couldn’t get a better combination. I also love that the town’s on a hill rather than a flat, suburban-looking place.

I love that mixture of ages in the architecture and the people.

Interviewer: They’ve preserved it quite well, haven’t they?
Sybil: Yes, they have.

Interviewer: When you go out in Korumburra, where do you normally go? Where’s your favourite?
Sybil: I spread the love because there are different places that have different offerings.

I might go to the Middle Pub. I might have Japanese next door. I might go up for an Italian munch. Or I’ll go to Kelly’s for a beautiful sandwich. They all offer something different.

Interviewer: And what would you like to see happening in the town over the next 20 years?
Sybil: I’d like to see more of what’s happened in the last five or six years.

There are still plenty of shops and buildings that need rediscovering. I hope like-minded people continue to preserve them, rather than bulldozing and reinventing.

Thank you!

Pub with no beer … Sybil Leris still owns the Royal Hotel in Loch.