The Wet II - Rochester's Pub

Today, here's just one snapshot of the recent floods of Victoria. One of the areas hit by the floods was the inland wheatbelt town of Rochester, a place that we've driven through on trips north. It has a very memorable Aussie-style pub, the McMaster's Hotel:

Photo by James

As the Herald Sun reported on January 16th:

THE small wheat and dairy town of Rochester in the Victoria's north has been hit by its worst flood.

About 80 per cent of the town is under water and more than 200 properties have been inundated.

The flood waters are expected to peak this afternoon at more than 9.2m, when the full impact of controlled releases from Lake Eppalock are felt. The overflowing Campaspe River has split the town in half and continued to cause water levels to rise well above the town's 1956 record flood level about midday yesterday.

This is what the pub looked like from the air:


And worse than 'a pub with no beer' is a pub full of water:


As the Herald Sun went on to say, it was a real case of bad timing:

Tony McCurry is dreaming of most pub owners' and drinkers' worst nightmare - a dry bar. Mr McCurry and wife Marlene took over running the Hotel Rochester on Wednesday after owning the freehold on it for 10 years.

The water started to recede yesterday, but still covered the floor of the main pub and beer garden.

Mr McCurry said the couple knew the flood was coming, but never expected the damage to be so severe.

"We did sandbagging but by 7am the water was just starting to trickle in," Mr McCurry, 63, said. "Within three hours it was knee deep right through the hotel. It is certainly bad luck."

We hope they've dried out and been able to wet some whistles since.

James