Acclaimed Melbourne publican Liam Ganley has emerged plans in hand, after a six-month battle with council, for a major rejuvenation of the rescued and beloved Windsor Castle Hotel.
Ganley Group managing director Liam Ganley came to Australia in 2011 to work in construction as a project manager. Having grown up in Ireland in pubs hundreds of years old, he was drawn to the authentic atmosphere of the old premises.
The group has earned respect for its restoration of heritage buildings. It now owns seven throughout Melbourne, including St Kilda sites the Fifth Province Irish pub and Freddie Wimpole’s.
“I love bringing old pubs back to life … peeling them back and exposing layers of history,” he says.
At the start of 2025 both the Windsor Castle and Carlton Hotel entered administration. But news emerged the following month that they had been acquired and would be rejuvenated by Ganley Group.
The Castle had not seen much change in two decades and was in desperate need of repairs and upgrades.
After undertaking extensive community consultation Ganley developed and submitted plans to Stonnington Council that included reworking the outdoor area. Council had been addressing noise issues with the neighbouring properties for years and the DA specified the removal of a mature Cyprus tree on the northern boundary in order to build a three-metre double-brick wall to help minimise noise.
At the end of 2025 the planning permit was received, but early 2026 Council paused the process again, rejecting the removal of the tree, citing a report by an independent arborist that specified the tree was healthy and “prominent” in its location.
Ganley used a Freedom of Information request to secure the arborist report, finding it also suggested the tree was “not a particularly desirable species” for any entertaining area.
Ganley has been stunned by the council’s stonewalling the brick wall, opining that anyone might think they would be eager to see the rejuvenation of a 150-year-old landmark, retained as a community meeting place employing locals rather than being redeveloped into residential.
Instead, he says it has been a constant battle to get answers and accuses council of a “lack of care” about local business and the struggles of the hospitality industry.
Early this month, after half a year battling council and having to relocate full-time workers retained from the Castle to other venues, he closed the doors on the basis it was ‘falling apart’ and losing around $10k each week. A sign in the window read “closed due to Stonnington Council inaction”.
It was only after he threatened to go to the media the situation changed and council finally issued a provisional approval for the tree’s removal – subject to conditions, including planting a replacement tree.
Despite being some progress, the conditional approval kept the group in limbo, lacking the necessary permits to begin.
Stonnington Council’s CEO Dale Dickson puts the blame for the hold-ups on Ganley Group, accusing the former project manager of not submitting the prescribed criteria to justify removing the tree “in a timely manner”.
A senior council manager also corresponded with Ganley that retaining trees is “critically important … in the current Climate Emergency” – despite the fact new trees absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than mature ones.
Another fortnight of negotiations and Ganley now reports he has finally secured the necessary permit.
In response to the accusations of being slow to provide the information requested he pondered which of the multiple consultant and trade reports this referred to, suggesting the whole process is a strategy to run down the clock and that “logic doesn’t come into it”.
“The biggest lesson has been how slow they move,” he says. “It’s not the same pace as private enterprise. It’s frustrating how long these matters can take.”
The next step is to secure the final building permit and “crack out the chainsaw”.
He is hopeful construction will begin within the month, looking to an opening early 2027.
The delays have pushed the rebuild back half a year and foiled plans to open in Spring.
“Unfortunately, we’ll miss the guts of summer, but it’s going to be a good winter venue and hopefully we can capitalise on being the new kid on the block.”
A reader survey by the Herald Sun asking if local councils should “do more to cut through red tape and back businesses trying to create jobs” found an overwhelming 99 per cent in favour.
