White Dog Hotel Lilydale: Duke’s Saloon graffiti removal by Main St township groups

A notorious 160-year Lilydale hotel that has sat derelict for more than two decades is getting a spruce up and you can take part.

All hands are needed on deck to clean up the façade of Lilydale’s oldest pub that is covered in graffiti.

Come Sunday morning, members of the community are rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck into refreshing the front of 160-year-old Lilydale Hotel, which over the past two years has become an eyesore.

Locals from across the Valley have been campaigning for the old hotel — known to many as the White Dog or Duke’s Saloon — to save and reopen the 152-year old pub that has become run-down and derelict.

Now the Lilydale Township Action Group and Lilydale Main Street Beautification members, with the help of Yarra Ranges Council, have come together to get rid of the graffiti that has built up across the front of the building.

In a post on Facebook the Lilydale Main Street Beautification group said the hotel was looking ugly and neglected.

“We can’t renovate it but we can clean the graffiti off and improve how it looks,” the post said.

Stockdale & Leggo Lilydale director Max Manning, who is a member of both groups, said the vandalism had increased since last year and especially during COVID.

“It has got worse and worse and police can only photograph and try and locate who has done it,” Mr Manning said.

“It’s become a real eyesore in the area and pretty disgusting.

“It was one of the first things we identified when we started the Main St beautification project.”

Mr Manning said the project had been set to start earlier this year but COVID happened.

The owner of the hotel has been consulted by the team, he said.

“It’s a joint effort by people in the community who really care about the town,” he said.

Mr Manning’s wife and office manager Sharyn has been heading up the Christmas decorations throughout Main St.

Mrs Manning and members of both township groups have spent weeks making the decorations, which are now up and adding festive cheer to the street.

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