Stretching up the room’s centre, the table was cut, sanded and lacquered by Mr Stanford using the wood from an old red gum chopped at Michael and Mark Carmody’s property on the Binalong Road.

Top Pub co-owner Margie McKay, who aims to build a rustic décor in the venue, decided she needed to add to the room’s country-style ambience with a long table, and called up Mr Stanford last December with the idea.

She had to explain little to the woodworker, who understood quickly what she was looking for and began work on a rustic-design table using the red gum wood.

After dressing it down and producing the 3.6 metre long table, six men were needed to bring it into the Top Pub café, to be called ‘The Crossing’.

A second, slightly shorter table will complete the set at the café-wine bar once completed by Mr Stanford in his workshop, and will create a banquet-hall atmosphere in a room evoking a Boorowa long past.

The tables will be finished after an eventful start for the load of red-gum wood cut by Mr Stanford.

He said after chopping, milling and storing the red gum in November 2010, it was later covered with water during the floods and had to be dried.

Mr Stanford, 70, a third-generation woodworker born and raised in Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, said the craft came naturally to his family.

He has spent his life mastering woodworking, makes furniture both professionally and for his family, and is able now to tell the era of a table’s making using details including the type of nail used by its producer.

Ms McKay said she is pleased with the new addition to the revamped Top Pub café and wine bar, and said it will feature a unique table divider for separate parties visiting the venue.

The venue’s décor and name is inspired by a historical photo of Boorowa, she said.