Another historic Australian hotel is calling for last drinks, proving that serving beer to thirsty drinkers Down Under is not necessarily a path to riches.
The Creekside Hotel in the Victorian town of Warracknabeal, 330 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, has announced it is closing as of 1 January.
The owners of the pub, which has been serving patrons since its inception as the Commercial Hotel in 1870, blamed lower than expected sales and debts incurred due to overspending by partners.
In a post on Facebook , the unidentified owners said they had expected to remain “in the background” when they invested in the business as a 50/50 partnership with people who had hotel industry experience.
“Things declined while they were here, and we were way behind in our sales and accumulated a large amount of unpaid debt due to their overspending and/or developing debt we were unaware of until we ended the partnership,” they said.
“We invested a chunk of personal money in the hope we could trade out of the debt and keep the doors open.
“But the economy slowed, people stopped spending, things went up, and we could not catch up. Now we are going the way of many restaurants/hotels.”
The decision is consistent with a trend in Australia's hospitality sector of business closures and collapses since the COVID-19 pandemic due to reduced consumer spending affecting the sector.
