13/12/2025
UPDATE:
We love this community.
We are completely overwhelmed by the support and kindness shown over the last 24 hours. Thank you all so much. Apologies for not replying sooner. As many of you would understand, yesterday was an emotional day.
Your support absolutely got some attention.
We’ve had a number of professionals reach out to offer advice, which we are incredibly grateful for and will be taking up. We’re the first to admit we’re a bit naive when it comes to navigating processes like this. We make coffee and cocktails, not development applications.
We don’t blame anyone at the council for this, they are just following their rules. But whether these rules need to change to support rather than hinder small businesses is a question we are all asking. I will just add our experience with council could improve as our interactions have been more combative than co-operative which have definitely added to an already stressful situation.
The positive news is that the mayor and council members have now reached out directly to offer assistance. All have assured us that they also do not want to see Pallet become an office which gives us hope.
What happens next
While verbal assurances are a great start, we’ll be waiting for formal confirmation in the form of a successful development approval, whenever that may come. That written outcome is what will ultimately give us certainty.
For the moment, while pallet is closed, we are brainstorming the idea of using Pallet as a community weekend market, not only to support our fellow small businesses, but also keep our main street buzzing!
The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind. Hitting “share” on yesterday’s post was one of the hardest things we’ve done and to wake up today feeling hopeful again is entirely because of you.
We truly love this community.
Thank you for standing with us.
The Pallet Family
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Nairne Community,
We have some sad and unexpected news to share.
Pallet Café will be closing today, Sunday 14 December, and at this stage we are unsure when, or if, we will be able to reopen.
Apologies for this long post, but we feel the situation deserves to be explained properly.
Before we start, we would like to say thank you. To this incredible community who welcomed us as newcomers to Nairne nearly nine years ago. Thank you. We’ve been so fortunate to build friendships, share countless coffees and meals, and become part of a town we truly love.
We hope Pallet Café leaves you with fond memories. It was never perfect. We made mistakes along the way, but we learned, grew, and always tried to do better.
So why are we closing?
It’s not due to money, and it’s not the end of our lease. In fact, we were fortunate enough to purchase the building earlier this year.
The reason is an unexpected and ongoing planning issue with council.
For the last two years we’ve been working on a new concept for Pallet. A new name, new menu, new hours, and a liquor licence. When we applied for the liquor licence in February, we expected (optimistically!) to be open under the new concept by April.
There were no objections from the public or Liquor Licensing SA. However, during council’s review of historic planning approvals, a discrepancy was identified with the building’s approved land use classification.
Despite this building operating as a café before our arrival, and many other hospitality businesses for decades before, its formal planning use is recorded as “Office.”
This came as a complete surprise to us.
We were advised that the only way to correct this was to submit a full development application to change the land use, with no guarantee of approval. We engaged professionals and followed the process properly, but ten months later we are still waiting.
Why this matters
Some may wonder why this is so serious.
Unfortunately, we’ve been here before. Three years ago, our short-lived Bad Betty venture on the main street (an idea which later grew into our other business Little Birdy Bakery) was forced to close after just 3½ months due to the exact same land-use issue. That shopfront remains empty to this day.
After ten months of stress, uncertainty, no clear pathway forward, and a lot of sleepless nights, we’ve had to make the heartbreaking decision to move all staff to other ventures, and pause Pallet for now.
To gift card holders, they will be redeemable at Little Birdy Bakery, HMBL Tapas, or fingers crossed our new concept whenever it may arrive.
Personally, we are gutted, frustrated, and tired. And we feel like we have let everyone down.
How you can help?
We don’t want to close.
We didn’t buy this building to be forced to convert it into an office.
We believe Nairne deserves a vibrant main street with places to gather, eat, and connect.
If you feel the same and would like to support us, you’re welcome to:
Reach out to us directly
Contact council to express your support for local hospitality businesses
Share this post within the community
We truly hope the new year brings a positive resolution and allows us to return to doing what we love. Otherwise, Nairne may lose yet another hospitality venue, and gain another office instead.
Thank you for reading, and for supporting us over the years.
With love,
The Pallet Family
