No one was looking at the wine bottle when it flew off the shelf at an old pub, but it was just another day at the local haunt.

A bartender and a handful of witnesses at Castle Hotel in Tasmania insisted the bottle hadn't been anywhere near the edge when it leaped.

But the darting drop gave visiting author Paula-Maree Roberts an eerie feeling.

"The wine bottle smashed just before we arrived. Everyone was acting like it was just a normal thing for them, that these random things would happen," Ms Roberts said.

She said it was "lucky it didn't hit anybody".

Ms Roberts and her partner, photographer Gavin John, checked into their upstairs accommodation later that night, and the author found herself peering into the darkness for any signs of movement.

Almost every old pub in Australia clai

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