Ms Anderson said the flood, which inundated the town last week, was the final straw after a tough two years and she left town last night.

“I’m trying to do this on my own and I can’t handle it,” Ms Anderson said.

The pub’s cellar and ground floor were flooded last Monday, leaving a thick sludge once the water receded.

Power was cut, the carpets were ruined, beer stocks were low and mice invaded.

“The whole building was a mess before the floods, now it’s so much worse,” Ms Anderson said.

“I couldn’t get flood insurance so I’d have to foot the bill to get everything working.”

Owner Rudolph Bobilak, 73, said he would endeavour to reopen the Anna Street pub in about a month’s time.

“It’s a one-pub town so I don’t think it would be right to shut it down permanently,” he said.

“We’ve got a bowling club here but you’d be surprised the amount of work that’s done in the pub.

“Especially with farmers around, they come in looking for labourers and farmhands, it’s all done over the bar, over a middy.”

Mr Bobilak has owned the pub for nine years and said it was insured for structural damage.

“You can’t get insurance for floods, they insure you for rain but not flood, I can’t see how one works without the other but that’s another story,” Mr Bobilak said.

Ms Anderson had signed a five-year lease in January 2010 but Mr Bobilak said he wished her well.

“She’s a hard worker and she didn’t need this rain to bugger it up for her,” he said.

“I thought I gave her a pretty fair deal, I paid the land rates and the rent she paid went towards a deposit.

“So the pub would have been half paid for by the end of five years.”

Urana deputy mayor Pat Bourke said the closure was a shock to the community.

“It’s sad news, it’s a terrible blow to see a pub close in the community,” he said.

“Men knock off and have a few beers, tell a few yarns about what’s happened during the day and then make up a few more.

“It’s a beautiful building and we’d hope it doesn’t stay closed for long.”

The Urana Hotel was built in the late 1880s.

The town’s other pub, The Royal George Hotel, closed after its licence was sold.

Call for clarity — page 24