“He might have been at the Prince but he should have gotten on the beers at the Royal.”
That is what Seymour’s Royal Hotel owner Paul Lowe said about Premier Daniel Andrews’ impromptu visit to the hotel just down the road last week.
Walking into the Royal Hotel, you couldn’t tell that just a fortnight ago Emily St was experiencing one of the worst floods in Seymour’s history.
In some respects, Mr Lowe and his wife Leigh Bushel-Lowe count themselves among the lucky ones.
Despite being in the heart of the flood zone, the Royal Hotel escaped largely unscathed.
“We dodged a bullet, to be honest,” Mr Lowe said.
“We had no water in the whole place. It was just bizarre.
“On the Friday we walked in when the main flood had arrived. I said to my wife, ‘this is amazing, we’ve not been affected at all’.”
That was with the exception of the cellar, which was flooded all the way to the second step from the hatch behind the bar.
It took two days to pump the water out of the cellar, with a pump loaned from a local plumber. All the refrigeration units, beer equipment and circuit boards have been water damaged.
Open for business, the Royal is operating with a mobile bar while the cellar is repaired.
It seems the Royal Hotel is situated on somewhat of an island on Emily St — the building next door and the bank adjacent were also spared.
“The building is 183 years old and I believe it is built on probably one of the highest points on Emily St,” Mr Lowe said.
Steeped in history, the building has taken many forms, always serving as a central point for the community.
The owners are eager to stay operational, whatever challenges they face.
“It’s just another problem. We’ve had COVID, we’ve had, you know, price hikes, we face these issues every day,” Mr Lowe said.
“Mitchell Shire was locked down more than any other place in the whole of Australia. We survived that, we’ll survive this.”
Mr Lowe and Ms Bushel-Lowe feel their business' survival is intrinsically linked to the welfare of flood-affected individuals and, more generally, the whole town.
“It’s a catch-22. It’s not just us fixing the problem physically that we have here,” Mr Lowe said.
“We live in a regional town of several thousand people. We rely on our regulars — if these people have got no money to spend then they aren’t going to spend it with us.
“Everyone’s got their problems. People won’t have that disposable dollar and we’ve got Christmas coming up.
“Although in the flood we were an island, we’re not actually an island, we’re a part of the community.
“This was always a central place of community. Way back in the 1800s, this was the first place.
“It’s a refuge, it’s a place to come, have a chat, catch up with other people and try and get some sort of normality to things.”
Mr Lowe and Ms Bushel-Lowe would like to thank the Seymour Football Netball Club, the SES and CFA for their support throughout the floods and clean-up effort.