Inside the Commercial Hotel Terang: country pub turned creative hub

Scores of creatives have walked through the doors of the old Commercial Hotel, awoken in the night to hastily write down a spontaneous idea and popped to the generous bar for a drop to help creativity flow in the pub-turned-artist residency.

It's the brainchild of Les Cameron.

Three years ago he bought the south-west establishment and has created a haven for artists, writers, performers and musicians to pursue their art free of financial burden.

The only stipulation, says Cameron, is have a project they are working towards.

"The problem is as soon as you say I'm going to take 12 months off to write a biography or do a research project there's nowhere much to go unless someone is going to fund it with a grant," he said. "Here it makes it easy for these guys to at least have the time.

"Our motive here is the same one that has been there right through traditional societies forever; without story there is no existence, without dance there is no fun, without song there is no creativity.

"We've just finished a feature film here and I want people to see it and say, that's not much different from what I watched last night on television, who did this? Well it was a group of people from the local area who were inspired to say 'we can do it'.

"The role that I feel I've played along the way is really to simply say, well why not? Why don't we try this? And being able to facilitate that.

"This is for the world, not for me. What I'm interested in is people getting back to community and solidarity. I'm an arts socialist."

Cameron formerly played football for North Melbourne and coached Koroit to win its first Hampden league premiership in 1971, before going on to be a teacher and university lecturer.

The 75-year-old has hosted creatives from as far as Argentina to London and between in Terang.

"Unless we all share we're going down together," Cameron said.

"I grew up in the western suburbs of Melbourne and watched all the refugees from the Second World War struggle to find a place in his country. If I can, I want to do something for the art refugees.

"My ambition would be that every hotel in the world was actually doing this, that every artist was supported in some way. It's actually doable."

One of the artists in residence is Ali MC, a photographer, writer, lecturer in criminology and regular contributor to Al Jazeera.

Before the pandemic, MC travelled internationally working on projects around politics, social issues and culture, and has also worked extensively with Indigenous communities in Australia.

Recent projects include Rohingya refugees, Khasi stone labourers in India, marginalised groups in East Timor and street photography in Iran.

His portrait of south-west Indigenous singer-songwriter Archie Roach was selected in the 2021 national Bowness prize and a collection of his protest photography was recently acquired by the State Library of Victoria.

His forthcoming book drew him from the lights of Melbourne to the fog-hugged hills of Terang, to the Commercial Hotel.

He's made a routine of the birdsong and rolling pastures of the region between bouts of writing.

"I thought it'd be a great opportunity to get out of Melbourne, get out of the lockdowns and just be able to write every day essentially, just have the time and space to be able to do it to finish the book," MC said.

"To have an opportunity to come and just stay and go for walks in the country every day or just go for a drive down the coast and feel immersed in the stories that I'm writing has been really beneficial."

The book is a collection of stories based on some of MC's travels and journalism from off the beaten track.

"What I've been reflecting on since being here - and the credit goes to Les and the community here - is how the arts in Victoria is very Melbourne-centric," he said.

"It's very rare to see artists from regional and rural Victoria and in remote Australia, for example, getting the same funding opportunities.

"So I think it's been really interesting for me to come here and just see what the community is doing here and the talent and the people in these areas as well.

"Les is kind of filling a gap in the artistic and cultural landscape in Australia with towns like this often getting ignored."

Photographer Christina de Water feels that at 70 and after a long career behind the lens, she's only just scratching the surface of her best work yet.

She has been at The Commercial for three months already, working towards an inaugural exhibition at Terang's old courthouse, which Cameron purchased with his partner Rosemary Knight, to transform it into a performance space.

"One of the reasons why I came is that people at our age, we're not finished, we're just getting started," de Water said.

"I knew once I had this freedom I'd maybe start doing my best work because I spent most of my life nurturing others because I didn't have enough of my own inner confidence.

"So now that I've got this space I've actually just started to think, I can do this. There's some wisdom I can add.

"Our generation's lives have been phenomenal. I've got an amazing amount to give."

Her career started in fashion photography on Collins Street in Melbourne, before expanding to Sydney and eventually to Europe.

This is de Water's first time in Terang.

She gets up every morning and photographs people and places of the region; she's followed dairy farmers' days from morning to night; bakers in their dawn working hours; and a newsagent who still hand-delivers papers at 2.30am. The project is called Postcards of Terang.

She heard about The Commercial Hotel during the sixth lockdown in Melbourne when all her work was stalled by the pandemic.

"I think everything we do in life is by chance and luck to a degree; being in the right place at the right time."

Musician Jim Williams was passing through Terang when he met Cameron and took up his offer to stay at the hotel to be closer to family. That was three years ago.

He's since written and produced a new album in a studio he built himself on the bottom floor of the hotel.

"What I do is I write music, and the best thing that anybody can give you for that sort of thing is space and time to relieve the burden of any expectation to do anything," Williams said.

"I could go to bed when I wanted, get up when I wanted, eat when I wanted and work when I wanted - which was all the time - and get stuff done."

The hotel plays host to gigs, author talks, book clubs, a recording studio, plays, group performances and more.

Most recently a feature film Wimmin Wild was produced and premiered at the hotel involving more than 30 locals.

The film is based on the broad idea of Thelma & Louise and grew out of COVID frustrations, especially issues of relationships for women, said Cameron.

"It highlights the beauty of Terang and will be sent all over Australia as part of telling our story.

"The topic most importantly was relationships in the situation of COVID - the bad ones that got worse and the good ones that got better."

It was launched on Friday December 17 by Corangamite Shire deputy mayor Geraldine Conheady, with more showings in the new year.

In the new year Cameron has already lined up a number of fellowships, including backyard theatre troupe Byte who will stay at the hotel before embarking on a tour across and Europe.

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