Inside the Dargo hotel, a 144-year-old pub in Victoria’s Alpine region, is a motorbike hanging from the roof. It belongs not to the pub but to a man who used to organise motorbike trips through the region with his mates, and would stop at the pub along the journey.
After the man died, his friends honoured him and their tradition by suspending it from the roof of the pub in about 2018.
“They still come up here for one weekend every September to feel like they’re having a few drinks with him,” says publican Helen Hall.
It’s one of the many pieces of memorabilia that gives the pub, which sits in the centre of the town of just 99 people and is a popular stopover for people travelling through the region, its character. On Boxing Day, Helen and her husband, Steven, announced they were selling up.
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First called the Bridge hotel, the pub opened its doors in 1881 after goldminers settled in the area after the mining boom. It has had just four owners since then.
Helen – whose family has lived in Dargo for four generations – says the couple bought the pub in 1993, sold it in 2004, and bought it again in 2017 after their kids left home.
They’ve done a lot of work to bring the historic watering hole, which had a separate room for women to drink in, into its modern era.
“The bar was made up of multiple rooms, we opened all that up,” she says. “We created the outdoor area in the 90s, and what used to be bedrooms, we opened up and made into a dining area.
“My husband built and designed the cabins that people stay in. All the material is local timber.”
Local timber was also used to make a large ashtray that still sits on the bar, a throwback to the days when patrons would smoke at the bar. “People often point to it and ask what it is,” says Helen.
Asked why they had decided to sell, Helen says: “We’re getting older now and spent 17 years of our life in here pretty much. I think it’s time for someone else to bring something new.”
Though she doesn’t want too much to change. In particular, she would like the collection of mementoes left by the thousands of patrons that have stopped in for a beer or lunch over the years – like the aerial motorbike – to remain. The walls are lined in a collection of stubby holders, number plates, hats, business cards and T-shirts.
“The patrons have contributed to how this pub looks,” she says. “People want to come back in five years and see [if] what they left is still here.”
“It’s a good old country pub,” she adds. “I love everything about it.”
