The Fowler family – well-known in the hotel industry in Bendigo – is again operating the venue.

Terry Fowler, who owns the building, said the venue had closed last week after the Stier Group, which operated the pub, was placed into liquidation.

“We’re very disappointed with what’s happened,” he said. 

“We’d like to apologise to all of our customers for the inconvenience that they’ve been put through.

“We hope they come back soon.

“I’ve been shattered by all this.”

His daughter Amanda Fowler and partner Danny McGrath will run the venue after taking ownership of the business this week.

The Fowler family has run venues including the Turf Tavern Hotel, Courthouse, the British and American, Brian Boru and the Boundary Hotel.

Mr McGrath has also operated venues in Richmond and Queensland.

“We’ve come back from Queensland to re-open the place,” Ms Fowler said.

“It’s only just all happened in the last two weeks.

“We couldn’t see Mum and Dad stepping back in themselves because they’re obviously too old.

“It's something we more or less had to do, but we wanted to do it as well. It’s a good opportunity for us and we know the industry well.”

Mr Fowler said the former owner had been running the venue and had signed a contract to purchase the building about 12 months ago, which fell through.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents show the tax office applied to wind up the business in January and March.

“It couldn’t survive being run under management; owner-operator is the way to go,” Mr Fowler said.

“We just want to get it open to the public.

“It’s been here for 100 years and it’s never closed before.”

The new owners have long-term plans to refurbish the venue and change the menu.