Ballarat’s biggest-ever sale has transacted, seeing the long-serving Finnings family pass the baton of Craig’s Royal Hotel to the growing Black Rhino Group.
The heritage-listed pub was built 1853, as the Ballarat Hotel, celebrating the first licensed premise in town. It was soon renamed Bath’s Hotel, celebrating the original owner, Thomas Bath.
A few years later new owner Walter Craig renamed it to Craig’s Hotel, and when a decade later Prince Alfred became the first Royal to visit the town he stayed there. Henceforth it became known as Craig’s Royal Hotel.
The pub has found itself entwined with local history and celebrity, hosting the royal commission into the Eureka Stockade uprising in 1855 and the creation of the Melbourne Racing Club in 1875, and welcoming other name guests such as Mark Twain and Dame Nelly Melba.
John and Mary Finning became the proud new owners in 1999. A few years in they began an extensive multi-million-dollar renovation that ebbed along until 2010, bringing an overhaul of the accommodation with 37 boutique rooms, and addition of the now highly acclaimed restaurant, The Gallery.
After enjoying the fruits of their labours for the past decade the couple planned taking a step back, retaining their other premise, Cranbourne’s Settlement Hotel, while listing Craig’s last November.
“We will be sad to see it go, but it is time for someone else to enjoy it as much as we have,” said John.
Black Rhino Group (BRG) already boasts a strong presence of 12 pubs in Melbourne and regional Victoria and recognised the strategy in the Finning royalty.
BRG reportedly paid more than $12 million for the freehold going concern, representing a strong vote of confidence for the region.
PubTIC was unable to make contact with BRG in time for publication.
