The Poowong Hotel and the publicans who came to find peace and solitude
The Poowong Hotel is a quaint and secluded pub that offers a slice of the Poowong lifestyle to anyone passing through Gippsland
Jacob Wallace
March 14, 2025
“We moved up here from South Yarra because our daughter was spending a lot of time on her grandparents’ farm, where she had horses and donkeys,” Poowong Hotel publican Ben Hall says. “We loved the area so much we decided to buy the pub.”
Ben and wife Fiona Cox moved to Poowong 18 years ago, he tells the Gippsland Monitor from behind the bar of the Poowong Hotel.
The gorgeous pub is in the centre of town. It was originally built in 1880 but was destroyed in a fire three years later before being rebuilt.
The pub has the feel of a homely cottage, with large arm chairs around a fireplace. Two wooden bars are adorned with trinkets, local sporting memorabilia and pieces of Poowong’s history, including the end of a fire-hose used to try and save the pub from the great fire.
The pub features a large indoor dining area, a pool table and several outdoor seating spots to relax on a summer's day and enjoy a drink in the sun.
The Poowong Hotel.
It won the best regional pub award at the AHA State Awards for Excellence last year, and was a finalist for the award in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Ben, originally from Dublin, and Fiona, purchased the pub from Colin and Helen Lindsay and have lived in it ever since. “Our daughter Charlie has grown up here in Poowong and has won flags with the netball team.”
Fiona grew up in hotels, as her mum was a publican at the Mount Erica Hotel in Prahran and the Central Club Hotel in Richmond, among others. “They’ve had so many that I couldn’t recount them all,” Ben says.
He says moving from South Yarra to Poowong was “a bit of a tree change” that had given them a “wonderful life”.
According to Ben the only downside to Poowong is the lack of public transport.
“It’s very quiet, it’s very beautiful, it has everything we want. We’ve got a library, a supermarket, cafes, and a swimming pool. The sports stadium is very good, we’ve got basketball and squash there, and tennis courts and netball courts and our football recreation reserve.”
He said that over the last 10 years there had been a noticeable increase in the number of younger people moving from the city to Poowong, where they were “finding peace and solitude”.
