The Wellington Hotel has a new lessee and will reopen as the Botanical Hotel Bendigo in September, marking a mini-resurgence for public houses in the city.
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Business owners Sally and Kevin Gebert took over the long-term lease of the White Hills venue on Sunday, weeks after Bendigo Stadium Limited walked away from the pub.
Unlike BSL, the Geberts have no plans to install poker machines at the venue, instead opting to refurbish the pub, features of which will be two new beer gardens and a new bar area.
Read more: What next for the humble pub?
Renovation works are underway at the Huntly Pub and the City Family Hotel appears to have secured a new tenant, but neither owners responded to requests for comment on Wednesday.
A planning application lodged with the City of Greater Bendigo for the Huntly Pub, which closed suddenly in November, details plans to demolish some internal walls and cover the existing beer garden.
The new lease owners of the Botanical have another award-winning pub – the Creekside Hotel in Warracknabeal – and suggested the decision to rename the hotel was a conscious effort to break with the immediate past.
Ms Gebert said she wanted to regain the connection between the pub and the community, which she suggested might have been lost under the previous regime.
“All we've heard is how good it used to be,” she said.
Aware of the challenges facing regional publicans, the Geberts said they will rely on a good food offering, rather than more traditional model of a roaring bar trade.
Read more: Interest show in City Family Hotel
Three pubs closed in the space of 10 months last year, but two of those – the Huntly Pub and the City Family Hotel – look set to reopen, while the Black Swan Hotel in central Bendigo remains dormant.
The Golden Square Hotel last week indefinitely closed its doors.
“It is with deep regret that we have been placed in an untenable position and have had to close the hotel indefinitely,” a sign on the pub’s door read.
It followed the closure of the Newmarket Hotel in East Bendigo in mid-December.
BSL decided not to renew its lease of the Wellington Hotel earlier this year.
It was understood the stadium’s inability to secure the 44 poker machines it sought at the venue contributed to the operational decision.
