THERE are fears that another of our country pubs could disappear if a buyer isn\u2019t found for the Maroona Hotel.<\/p>\n
The popular Maroona pub is a bit or a rarity these days and has survived where many other country pubs haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
In recent years we\u2019ve seen the closure of the Wickliffe, Elmhurst, Buangor and Willaura hotels as well as pub in Ararat like the Shire Hall, Rex and Terminus.<\/p>\n
Maroona publican Margaret Wilson has been in business for 19 years, but told the Advocate it is time for someone new to take over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made some great friends here, lifelong friends. And I\u2019ve been very lucky with staff but it\u2019s time to get out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just getting tired. I\u2019m nearly 73 and I need some time to do my thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to do in a pub, the cleaning, the restocking, the reordering, you\u2019ve got to have fresh fruit and vegetables and meat even if it is a quiet weekend.<\/p>\n
Margaret said it was important for the hotel to remain in business.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it is important for this to remain a hotel. I don\u2019t really want someone buying it and turning it into a house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Margaret said the Maroona Hotel has given her many happy memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met my husband Owen here but he died five years later. This place has a lot of good and some bad memories for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The pub is currently on the market for $350,000.<\/p>\n
Mayor Bob Sanders said the local pub is the lifeblood of the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou only need to look at what is happening in Ararat now. We\u2019re back to one pub and I wonder what happened to the old timers who used to drink at the pubs that have closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as a small community like Maroona, Willaura, Elmhurst, the pub was a central part of the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the local pub has gone, the community doesn\u2019t really have a central place to go for a meal, drink and socialising.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up and the pub was the place where you went, it was the social place to meet and now we don\u2019t have so many places where we can do that,\u201d Cr Sanders said.<\/p>\n
Australian Hotels Association Chief Executive Officer Paddy O\u2019Sullivan said country pubs are the lifeblood of many communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cPubs are the centre of their local communities particularly in regional Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cPubs make an enormous economic and social contribution to Victoria, and innovative ideas like community purchase just show how important pubs are to local communities, and the vital role that pubs play in community life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Margaret Wilson told the Advocate there has been some interest from people keen to purchase her business.<\/p>\n
A group of local residents have been actively discussing the possibility of forming a consortium to buy the pub to keep it open and in community hands.<\/p>\n
While the idea of a consortium is in its early days, the AHA\u2019s Paddy O\u2019Sullivan says community owned pubs appear to be working well in other communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a number of different operating models for community ownership of regional pubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn northwest Victoria towns such as Sea Lake, Patchewollock and Nandaly have various management models that work well in their communities.\u00a0 They are great meeting places for local residents and have established themselves as tourist destinations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THERE are fears that another of our country pubs could disappear if a buyer isn\u2019t found for the Maroona Hotel.
\nThe popular Maroona pub is a bit or a rarity these days and has survived where many other country pubs haven\u2019t.
\nIn recent years we\u2019ve seen the closure of the Wickliffe, Elmhurst, Buangor and Willaura hotels as well as pub in Ararat like the Shire Hall, Rex and Terminus.
\nMaroona publican Margaret Wilson has been in business for 19 years, but told the Advocate it is time for someone new to take over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-2738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_8696-Copy-2-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-Ia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2738"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}