General News
14 January, 2026
Natimuk pub a place to gather and debrief
A town’s pub has often been a go-to meeting point in tough times. The fire that threatened, damaged, and destroyed many buildings in Natimuk on Friday afternoon gave the National Hotel in the main street a chance to fill that role over the weekend.
Owner Bill Lovell had his work cut out for him as the fire approached; his first thought was to make the building as safe as possible before it reached the extremities.
“I first learned about it on the ABC,” he said.
“I was actually in town and in my wisdom, decided to come back because I wanted to check that aircons (were) off and all that.”
With a large gas tank and other risks mitigated – but with the electricity cut – Bill said he was grateful to reopen only about 24 hours later with a generator from Horsham-based Laser Electrical, albeit with a substantially reduced menu.
“We were shut only Friday night,” he said.
“About five o'clock on Saturday, we were operational. Not for meals, but we could do pizzas – just for somewhere for people to come and talk and have a chat and sort of their own debrief.”
He said it was great to watch the town pull together in real time in front of him.
“There was sort of a lot of anxiety – as you'd imagine – stress, all of that sort of thing,” Bill said.
“But … people were (telling) stories, and this happened, and that happened, and we were lucky … and I think you'll find that the town will really pull together and help each other.
“Natti is pretty renowned for doing that sort of stuff.
“One of the girls that works here, someone from Natimuk, has offered their house to them for any length of time, and they might also like to rent it after a while (and) our cook, who only just shifted lost a fair bit of her stuff in the house, which she didn't own, but one of her friends did.
“So, there are lots of stories.”
For the time being, Bill had been relegated to extra cleaning duties, “because our cleaner got burned out, but was especially impressed with the fast work of Powercor to restore the electricity supply.
“They did an amazing job,” he said.
“One of the stats that I heard from someone ... what would normally be done in 15 hours, they did in six hours.”
He said he hoped people from out of Natimuk would avoid coming to take photos as “people have lost everything – they've lost their dreams, they've lost their home, all that sort of stuff” but could see the sense in “the next week or so” in coming to the pub for a meal or the coffee shop as an economic help, but not right away.
“The poor buggers have suffered enough without people stopping and gawking,” Bill said.
“And I know that's human nature, but … at the moment, it’s all pretty raw with people.”
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