Couple lovingly returns former south-west watering hole to former glory

Mick and Amanda Fennessy, who previously ran Harmony at Tower Hill - which offers accommodation - purchased the former Southern Cross Hotel in 2021.

The couple, who have lovingly restored a number of period homes, purchased the property when they sold their business.

"We wanted to make it our forever home," Mr Fennessy said.

The two were thrilled to be able to find out about the history of the building, which began trading as a hotel in 1875.

"What we found out was that a fellow named Michael Coghlan, an Irishman, he came out from Ireland.

"He was quite entrepreneurial and had shops and other businesses."

He built the Southern Cross Hotel - which had a bar and a ladies lounge - and it became the local watering hole.

"It was completed in 1875 and there are stories that it was initially proposed to be a two-storey building," Mr Fennessy said.

"There are old advertisements of commodious accommodation, stabling for horses and the finest liquor and spirits."

The hotel was quite successful for some years.

"This was the local hotel," Mr Fennessy said.

"Local meant probably within a couple mile radius - as far as you could walk or as far as you would be prepared to travel with a horse."

The invention of the motor vehicle was welcomed by all, but was a death knell for many a local pub.

"At the turn of the century there was the advent of the motor car and railways and of course people are travelling more.

"People were thinking 'I might go into that new hotel in Warrnambool or Port Fairy or Koroit'.

"All the bars and the hotels and the shebeens couldn't make a quid."

The government offered a cash incentive to licencees and the owner of the Southern Cross Hotel took up the offer.

"This hotel got a sum of money - I believe well over 1000 pounds - which in the day was a lot of money."

The hotel then became a private residence.

Many south-west residents know the building as the home of well-known sporting identity Jack Keane.

The couple said they were thrilled so many people had expressed delight they were returning the building to its former glory.

"People will tell us 'we're amazed at what you're doing'," Mrs Fennessy said.

The couple bought the property from John and Louise Nunn.

It was Mr Nunn who discovered the original lettering that signposted the building as the Southern Cross Hotel.

Today, the building is still marked as the Southern Cross Hotel but there is no longer beer flowing in the bar and ladies lounge.