The Keilor Hotel has withstood the test of time to become the Australian pub to stay for the longest period in the hands of a single family.
Owner Ray Dodd cuts an unassuming figure as he sands the corners of the latest addition to his beloved hotel – a four-metre long timber table.
The hotel has recently undergone renovations, with two large new rooms to be opened next month.
“We wanted to do something different,” Mr Dodd said.
“People are drinking less but they’re drinking better quality, and we hope we can give visitors that choice.
“There’s always something to do, some way to improve.”
It’s that sort of mindset that Mr Dodd has maintained since taking the reins in 1974.
Mr Dodd’s great-grandfather, Mathew Goudie, bought the hotel in 1862 for £1000, and his great-aunt, Jane, ran it until 1907 when it was leased out.
“I wanted to carry on the tradition of hospitality left by the family, and I have strong ties to the area so it was a clear choice,” Mr Dodd said.
His family arrived in Australia in 1840 when the country had a population of just 5000. His great-grandfather, George Dodd, was a quarryman who supplied stone to build the original Princes Bridge.
He found a suitable quarry site in Keilor and later oversaw the building of St Augustine’s Church and opened the suburb’s first school.
George’s son married Mathew Goudie’s daughter, Mary, and the couple established a farm called Brimbank, in the suburbs now known as Keilor and Sunshine.
Mr Dodd describes the hotel’s main corridor as his “family museum”, with the artefacts placed proudly behind glass.
“We have a copy of the Liquor Act from the 1980s,” he says.
“It was illegal to employ women in a hotel who weren’t family members; you needed a licence for a billiards table and it was illegal to dance.”
Mr Dodd’s most memorable moment came in the early 1980s.
“The flood came up over the bridge on the Old Calder Highway, which rarely got covered by water,” he says.
“It also covered Green Gully Bridge, which links Keilor and St Albans, so no one could get in or out of the area, so all the people who were in the hotel that night had to stay and we had a big party.”
