Since 1926, the Minapre Hotel at Lascelles has been a friendly meeting place in Victoria’s north, near the junction of the Henty and Sunraysia highways.
Story By Nathan Dyer
When Greg 'Wally' Wallace and Michelle McDougall began searching Victoria in 2006 for caravan parks to buy, little did they know the idea would lead to owning a string of pubs in the state’s north.
“When we decided caravan parks were too dear and out of our league, we started looking for pubs,” Wally says, leaning on the polished front bar of the Minapre Hotel. After hearing about the hotel at a sheep sale in Geelong, Wally drove the 380 kilometres north to Lascelles to check it out.
Michelle says the couple had a clear idea about what they wanted in a pub. “It had to be single storey, it had to be within three hours of Geelong and it had to be run down,” she says. “The Minapre Hotel didn’t tick the first two things on the list, but it definitely ticked the last,” she laughs.
This story excerpt is from Issue #91
Outback Magazine: Oct/Nov 2013
