One of Port Fairy’s prime commercial properties and businesses is on the market, but for owners Ken and June Brookes the sale marks the end of an era.
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After 42 years of running a hardware store in Port Fairy, which over the years has employed more than 80 staff, the couple has decided to retire. The sale of Brookes Home Timber and Hardware business and property is expected to fetch in excess of $2.5 million.
While the couple is keen to sell the business and property as one, there has already been interest from those who want to just purchase the property for redevelopment.
Mr and Mrs Brookes opened the store not long after they cut short a round-the-world trip and returned to Koroit to help his ill father.
The couple had left Australia in 1973, spent a year living in New Zealand before heading around the world via South America and Europe when word came that Mr Brookes’ dad needed help running his Koroit plumbing business.
“This is why we are here. We were going to head over to Canada so we’ll take that up later, we’ll resume our trip so to speak,” Mr Brookes said.
The couple’s first store, called Port Fairy Hardware, opened in Bank Street in March 1976.
In 1983 they purchased the Sackville Street shop and moved the business there, expanding the site over the years when the purchased about five neighbouring blocks.
While they will continue to live in Port Fairy, the couple plan to spend more time with their five children and eight grandchildren.
They also plan to finally travel to the country they’d plan to visit four decades earlier, especially now that their daughter and a grandchild they’ve yet to meet live in Canada.
It would be Mr Brookes’ first overseas trip since his early 20s when the couple partly hitch-hiked their way across the world, sleeping under the stars or wherever they could in the cheapest way possible which included spending a freezing night in a flimsy tent in the Arctic Circle. “It was a bit hairy in places,” he said. “We became very savvy. It was a great life experience.”
Mrs Brookes said having seen so much of the world helped them appreciate how much potential Port Fairy and the region had to offer.
Mr Brookes said: “When we first came to Port Fairy I guess, on reflection, I wondered why we’d done it because there was nothing happening here. It was deserted, there were no cars in the streets.
“Ever since we came here we’ve seen constant change. It’s been good to be part of it.”
He said he had built up the business to include electrical goods, tools, hardware, timber, paint and giftware.
“We’ve grown it from nothing to what it is,” he said.
“Our aim was to keep business in Port Fairy for Port Fairy and district people.
“I just hope that whoever takes it on has a good feeling for Port Fairy.”
Mr and Mrs Brookes said they wanted to thank the people of Port Fairy, many of whom were not just customers but have become good friends.
Outside of the business, Mr Brookes has been involved in the traders/business association, jazz festival and other events, and served on streetscape committee and other council committees.
Robertson Port Fairy Real Estate director Paul Ross described the sale as a rare and limited opportunity. Expressions of interest close August 3.