Tiger attracts tourists to Tantanoola from across Australia

Publicans Rebecca and Shaun Day only opened the pub on October 14 after Shuan had worked in hospitality for over a decade.

"He's always wanted to own his own pub and he's helped me out with my business before with my chocolate shop and so now it's his turn," Rebecca said.

"Here we are running the pub.

"Unfortunately I don't have time (for the chocolate shop) anymore being here."

She said the hotel, which first opened in 1879, was situated within the township of Tantanoola home to about 330 people and 16 workers help out at the hotel.

"We have the good old Tantanoola Tiger in here," she said.

"He's not exactly a tiger but back in the day, they thought he was a tiger.

"While we're setting up here we had people from all over Australia come in and ask to see the tiger.

"We get lots of tourists, it's a big tourist attraction"

The state library wrote a Bengal tiger supposedly escaped from a travelling circus near Tantanoola in 1884.

"Over the next few years, there were many reports of missing sheep in the area and some suggested that the sheep had become the prey of the missing tiger," they wrote.

"Eleven years after the tiger went missing a local man, Tom Donovan, saw what he thought was the Bengal tiger in a paddock with a sheep in its jaws.

"He took a shot at it ... as it turns out, it was not a Bengal tiger, but a Eurasian wolf - equally out of place in the Australian environment.

"It is thought that the wolf was a stowaway on a boat that was shipwrecked off the coast, but managed to make it to the shore."

In 1905 the hotel changed its name from The Railway Hotel to the Tiger Hotel as the story continued to arouse public interest.

Rebecca said since opening in October they have had a number of live music events with hopes to make it a regular occurrence.

"We had the Oz Quo Show (a cover band of StatusQuo) on Sunday just gone," she said.

"That would have been our biggest event so far with over 100 people attending.

"We haven't had many events because when we opened we were too late to book as everybody was already booked out.

"But we had Jason Baker for the opening which was a huge event as well, we have had the Anomalies, and on New Years eve we had the Profile Duo."

She said they had an awesome chef which meant the word was spread far and wide about the quality of food and customer service was a priority.

"Hubby and I are friendly and talkative to the patrons that come in," she said.

"We have a big beer garden where people can come and have a meal and bring their dog which is a drawcard."

The hotel is open Tuesday to Sunday opening at 10am on weekdays and 11am on weekends.

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