Hepburn Springs’ only pub offers rare chance in Vic spa country

Last drinks will soon be called at the only traditional country pub left in Victoria’s spa epicentre — before it returns reborn and refreshed like a weekend tourist.

The only watering hole of the alcohol variety in Hepburn Springs, Australia’s spa capital with Daylesford, is making a splash on the market for the first time in almost 30 years.

Its owner, Merv Keating, has spent most of that time behind the bar, but having entered his 28th year of ownership, and almost 67th on earth, the time has come to move on.

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“The community side of it, I reckon,” he says he’ll miss most. “That’s a lot of it.”

Pull up a seat.

A cosy front bar.

Summer afternoons would be very well spent out here.

“People don’t understand a pub, especially in the country, is the centre of town, really. When people don’t have anywhere to go, they come here,” he told the Herald Sun.

“Half the time you’re a social worker — and it’s a shame but it’s sort of the last frontier for blokes … somewhere you can bounce ideas off”.

McQueen Real Estate director Kim McQueen says the Daylesford and Hepburn Springs community has their “21sts, weddings and funerals” at the Savoia Hotel.

“It’s very much an old country hotel, it’s very popular with the locals,” she says.

“Everything is held there. It’s ripe to be turned into a gastro foodie hotel.

“There’s a pub in Daylesford called the Farmers Arms and it’s absolutely pumping seven days a week, that’s the type of thing we envision for the Savoia Hotel”.

Keating says Hepburn Springs is “a little bit quieter” than its big sister down the road, where all the hotels have “gone up-market”, but it is popular with the same visitors.

A gastropub would make good use of all this dining space.

Locals will know this function area well.

“You’ve got to be seen drinking lattes in the street don’t you?” he jokes.

“Not that we don’t have lattes, but it’s popular, Hepburn Springs, with the spa complexes.”

Price expectations are in the mid to high $1 million range, with interest from those who’d turn it into a boutique country pub or brewery, the latter of which Keating also considered.

The 3147sqm property is on two titles, split between 2354sq m including the pub and a vacant 793sq m block behind that could be developed residentially or as accommodation.

It’s also the only bottle shop in town and has an enviable license for takeaways until midnight.

“No one else has (that licence) and you won’t get it again. If you got a couple in here or even two (to run the operation) it would pump,” Keating says.

The hotel was originally built in 1870, with the facade — the only part of the property that is heritage listed — redone in the early 1900s.

It’s also the only bottle shop in Hepburn Springs.

There are two self-contained residential units on site, alongside the hotel with public bar, restaurant, large function room, billiards room, beer garden and veranda areas.

“There’s huge potential to expand the existing business,” McQueen says.

“The growth in the Daylesford-Hepburn Springs region has been phenomenal. Year-on-year more and more tourists are visiting the region”.

And as for the locals?

“They probably don’t want me to go because they’re in their comfort zone,” Keating says, himself more or less retiring to spend more time with his family including 12 grandkids.

“But it’ll go ahead when I go. You could do a lot with it, there’s no doubt about it.”

The Savoia Hotel is being sold privately as a “walk in, walk out” proposition, which means everything inside is included.

This article from the Herald Sun originally appeared as “Hepburn Springs pub: Savoia Hotel, only one in town, for sale”.