About
Several years ago, we set out on a quest to visit as many country Victorian pubs as possible. At the same time our aim was to visit every corner of rural and regional Victoria. This has meant exploring towns, villages and districts in the far-flung regions of the state from the sea to the Murray; from the forests and mountains of East Gippsland to the great plains and and endless horizons of the Mallee. It has been a wonderful journey.
Along the way, we have stayed in motels, pubs and caravan parks and have met some terrific people who love, and are proud of their communities and are welcoming and open to those who are interested in their home places. The friendliness and openness of the person behind the bar is often the key to the atmosphere and ambience of the pub itself and therefore, by extension, of the community itself.
Pubs have always been important to the life of communities. Local service groups, sporting clubs, and all sorts of associations, committees and leadership groups have met in pub dining rooms and meeting spaces. They have been the venue for entertainment; family celebrations of births, birthdays, engagements, weddings and deaths.
They have been, and remain, the heartbeat of local communities; they are vital to their continued health. Pubs are a very important part of the life of our society and deserve our continued and wholehearted support.
We hope that this website will be a positive contribution to this effort.
I have used various sources to determine which pubs are regarded as country pubs. There are numerous websites that list all the current suburbs of Melbourne and I have used these to make a judgement as to where country meets city.
I have used the following definition of an Australian pub:
An establishment that has a bar with public access and provides either food or accommodation or an establishment that uses the word hotel in their name or describes themselves as a pub in their website or social media posts.
Country Vic Pubs is a project that I am passionate about and it is my intention to always have the Directory as up to date as possible. I will be monitoring it on a very regular basis. I welcome feedback regarding pubs that have closed either permanently of temporarily and I particularly welcome news of a pub reopening which, thankfully, does happen from time to time.
