A DRY pub?
The Welshpool Hotel might be high and dry but that’s just how licensee Skye Dubignon likes it. Concrete floors, the only remaining evidence of the devastating Boxing Day floods last year.
“We’re just waiting for the insurance to be settled,” said Skye.
From the moment local girl Skye arrived at the hotel on Boxing Day last year to survey the damage caused by flash flooding, she was determined to rebuild.
“It was a huge effort, but we were back in business by New Year‘s Eve.”
Skye had only just taken possession of the hotel, after spending two months preparing the popular pub for the busy summer holiday period ahead, when the storm hit.
Closing the hotel Christmas Day last year, Skye was enjoying her first sleep-in after months of hard work, on Boxing Day, when torrential rain began to fall.
“We’d only been open five weeks when the flood hit.”
The hotel had been closed for two months while Skye scrubbed and cleaned the century-old pub for its official re-opening on November 16.
Skye’s phone started ringing. A text message confirming Skye’s worst fears.
‘Have you seen Welshpool?’
Skye was flooded in at home.
Welshpool was experiencing a once-in-one-hundred-year flood.
When Skye arrived at the hotel, once the water receded, the sun was shining, and the water was gone.
Skye’s on-site employee described how floodwater had engulfed the hotel in ten minutes.
“It was just mud and wet – the aftermath (of a flood),” Skye recalled.
Rolling her sleeves up yet again, she got to work cleaning it up.
“Everything was smashed against the back door and wall. The back fences were down. Fridges were knocked over.”
It was one of Welshpool’s worst floods in living memory and the hotel was closed for four days.
With the community and team pitching in, Welshpool Hotel reopened in time for New Year’s.
“We opened at 6pm New Year’s Eve, in time to set up the band, serve dinner and ring in the new year.
“The pub did not lose power, but the carpets were impossible to dry,” remembers Skye.
The landlord permitted Skye to remove the carpets two days before NYE.
Ten months later Skye is still negotiating with insurers.
“I’m still not where I wanted to be a year into the business,“ admits Skye.
”It is a little bit disappointing, but the hotel is still open and still operating.
“Local and visitor support has been amazing.”
Near on twelve months after opening, Skye is celebrating the small milestones.
Halloween night was a big night at the hotel, celebrated by the Welshpool and District Advisory Group and a few hundred local schoolchildren together with their parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles and curious neighbours.
“We will be celebrating our first year in business on November 16 with music provided by Jimi Kempsey.”
The Welshpool Hotel has been an active fundraiser for charity, both locally and further afield.
“We raised over $5000 for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal winning an award for being a top fundraiser.”
The hotel also raised just under $4000 for prostate cancer and will be kicking off the Christmas Present Drive for Manna Gum again this year shortly.
Skye hopes to have her drive-through bottle shop open by Christmas.
“We will be closed Christmas Day but intend to be open for New Year’s Eve with the return of last New Year’s band Alysha and Duffy.”
The Welshpool Hotel is open Wednesday to Sunday, serving lunch and dinner with the bar open from 11am to late.
The hotel has live music at least once a month and already has a steady stream of bookings for Christmas and end-of-year parties.
Keep an eye out on socials for upcoming live music with a spectacular lineup for 2025 already underway, including an ABBA tribute for March – tickets out soon.
Located on the South Gippsland Highway the Welshpool Hotel is hard to miss at 21-23 Main Street, Welshpool.
Phone 5681 6215 for bookings or follow The Welshpool Hotel on Facebook.
