East Gippsland: Swifts Creek’s Albion Hotel has change of name

It’s been the Albion Hotel for nearly 100 years, but a small pub in East Gippsland is changing its name under new management.

Swifts Creek’s newest publican has dusted off the hotel’s original name in a nod to the town’s pioneering past and providing a reset for locals following recent bushfire and Covid challenges.

The East Gippsland pub was established by Scottish immigrants John and Margaret McMillan in the 1870s and known as the Junction Hotel.

But fire destroyed the original pub in the early 1900s and the Albion Hotel, which had been operating at nearby Doctors Flat, was transported to Swifts Creek in 1926 after a temporary hotel had been established.

Jane Rowe and her husband Alan Bowles inside the Swifts Creek pub with a picture of the original Junction Hotel. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

The relocated timber hotel also fell victim to fire 64 years later before being rebuilt.

Jane Rowe has taken over the pub in recent weeks with the change back to the Junction Hotel about “renewing, refreshing, but linking to the past”.

“We’ve got to celebrate our history,” she said.

“Logging and farming have been big here, so we’re putting all that memorabilia back up.

“Pubs like these are incredibly important.

“We all know what happened with Covid and before that bushfires.

“People just need somewhere to come together.”

Ms Rowe grew up in regional NSW and has been a resident of Swifts Creek since 2018.

Her husband Alan Bowles runs a welding business in town and she spent 13 years on East Gippsland Shire with stints as mayor and deputy mayor.

Jane Rowe and her husband Alan Bowles are the operators of the Junction Hotel, formerly Albion Hotel at Swifts Creek. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Ms Rowe said the pub would trade seven days a week with a big emphasis on weekend lunchtime meals to entice Great Alpine Road motorists.

“Tourism is important to us up here and will be more so going forward with the timber industry declining,” she said.

Live music is back with a band, the Screaming Riels, returning to the pub on the Melbourne Cup weekend after doing a gig during the height of the 2019-20 bushfires.

“It was a really good morale boosting night for everyone when they played when the fires were on,” Ms Rowe said.

“Having them back was a perfect way to start our stint here.”