The Bunyip Hotel at Cavendish has an unusual owner

CAVENDISH has kicked a goal by giving Nathan and Sasskia Bastock the keys to its community-owned pub, the Bunyip Hotel, which a decade ago, was at risk of closing down.

Top brew: Nathan and Sasskia Bastock run the Bunyip hotel in Cavendish. They've been brewing their own beer and have started distilling. Pictures: Andy Rogers

IT’S A long way from war-torn Afghanistan to the serenity of the Wannon River at Cavendish, in western Victoria.

And it’s even a longer stretch to go from being a combat engineer defusing roadside bombs in Afghanistan to brewing beer and distilling spirits at Cavendish’s Bunyip Hotel.

“Hopefully there will be less explosions,” jokes the hotel’s Nathan Bastock.

“It has been a big leap but for us it has been worth giving it a go.”

Nathan and his wife, Sasskia, and six-month-old daughter, Isla, took over the management of the Bunyip Hotel in February last year and last month tasted their first pilot batch of gin

That’s on the back of this year’s weekly production of six lines of craft beers.

The couple says part of the attraction of quitting their roles — Nathan’s in the army, from 2008 to 2012, and Sasskia’s in banking — was the history of the pub itself.

Not just the fact that within its art deco walls there are parts of the building that date back to the 1840s.

But also because the Bunyip Hotel holds a unique status among Australia’s watering holes.

A decade ago the Bunyip, which overlooks the Wannon River, was at risk of closing when the building was put up for sale and no buyer could be found.

So, a group of 18 locals got together to buy the freehold and, a decade on, there are now 23 community shareholders who own the pub.

Nathan says the board of management meets once a month, sharing a bottle of wine in the dining room but following formal meeting protocols.

For some people serving beers to their bosses might be intimidating, but not for the Bastocks.

“Instead of going through a real estate agent to get to the landlord who you never meet, we have the landlords in the pub,” says 25-year-old Nathan, who adds that the owners have renovated the pub extensively.

“If there are any issues we bring it up over a glass of wine after talking about how the footy went on the weekend.

“It’s formal but personal. We are very lucky.”

Adds Sasskia: “There’s not a lot of other pubs like this. It’s a very close community here but not so tight-knit it’s not welcoming.”

Nathan says in the time they have managed the pub, people representing communities from other rural areas have dropped by to learn how the Bunyip Hotel model works.

“There can’t be many pubs that run like this. We’ve had people come whose pub is for sale and they don’t want to
lose it,” he says.

“We’ve passed on a lot of positive feedback about how this pub works.”

Nathan says because Cavendish locals own the pub, they have an interest in keeping it profitable — even more so when you consider the next closest pub is about 20km away at Hamilton, Dunkeld or Coleraine.

As the chair of the hotel’s board of directors, Ron Huf, puts it: “We try to encourage their success, because their success is the community’s success.”

That’s one of the reasons why their new microbrewed beers have become so popular. The couple — who brew at the back of the pub — started out making 80-litre batches each week last year but found such was the popularity, they had to this year crank it up to 300 litres a week in six lines, including a pumpkin ale and honey braggot (similar to a mead beer).

So far the beer has all been on tap, but with bottling planned for later this year, Sasskia says paintings done by her artist father — Almar Zaadstra in Casterton — will feature on the beer bottles.

Nathan and Sasskia grew up in the area and went to school at Hamilton’s Monivae College.

But they say it was sheer coincidence the Bunyip’s lease was up for renewal at the same time they were looking for a career change.

“Brewing beer had gone from a hobby to an obsession for me,” Nathan says.

“We looked in country areas all around Australia for a shed to brew in. We just happened to call up the publican here to ask whether we could work with him and he told us he was looking to sell up.

“We didn’t have a lot to lose by giving it a go.”