Is there a better reason to buy a pub other than to be close to your first grandchild?
That is exactly what the new owners of The Bellum Hotel have done.
Owners Bob Williss and Meg Black were presented the idea when visiting their eldest son Daniel, who owns wedding venue Mountain Path Meadows at Mount Schank.
"We would come to the pub quite often when we visited," Meg said.
"It closed in January and in February we had came down for Mabel's birthday and Daniel mentioned the pub had closed down.
"He's like 'you should buy it mum' and here we are.
"This is the first time we've owned or ran a pub - but I was in accounting and I've ran businesses before."
She said the opening event was "massive" as they had it on AFL Grand Final day.
"We didn't stop all day - it was awesome," she said.
"We have since had Christmas parties, we have had a 70th and have a 21st coming up.
"The Millicent Seniors club and Boandik Lodge - the aged care - come and have lunches and play cards.
"We have a massive New Years Eve planned too."
She said it was a change in lifestyle and she had moved her two children aged eight and 11 for the adventure.
"We focus on making it a family hub, where we are wanting everyone to relax when they come here," she said.
"And we love live music - that was another draw card since we both love live music, so we try and do as much live music as we can, every fortnight or every third week."
Ms Black said the key to running a successful iconic pub was to have cold beer that wasn't too pricey.
"A lot of the pubs overprice in certain ways," she said.
"We're not here to make squillions, we just want people to keep coming back and enjoying it.
"It makes Bob and I happy to see other people relaxed and enjoying themselves."
She said in 2024 they were going to keep doing what they are doing.
"We'd like to start a pool competition with some of the other local pubs, but not Mount Gambier - just the smaller country pubs around us," she said.
"We are looking to potentially tie the pub in with Daniel's wedding venue and hold the receptions - so that is another thing we will plan towards."
This is part of the Stock Journal's iconic pub series - stay tuned for more pub stories to come.
Kiara Stacey
Journalist for Stock Journal. Kiara was in classified sales at Stock Journal before joining the editorial team in 2021. Kiara completed a Bachelor of Communication (journalism) at Deakin University the year prior.
Journalist for Stock Journal. Kiara was in classified sales at Stock Journal before joining the editorial team in 2021. Kiara completed a Bachelor of Communication (journalism) at Deakin University the year prior.
