Last month was the 8th anniversary of the fire which destroyed the historical Diggers Rest Hotel, one of the few Mount Alexander Road gold rush wayside hotels known to survive.
Unfortunately, due to a series of issues the hotel cannot be re-developed by the current owners and may never be rebuilt without some level of community involvement.
The hotel site is subject to a Heritage Overlay control and under the current zoning of the land, the use of the land for a hotel is prohibited. However, the presence of a Heritage Overlay control on the site would allow Council to consider an application for a rebuild of a hotel, bistro and bottle shop, subject to a permit.
The hotel is listed for sale and the asking price is $1.6m. It is estimated that an additional $1.5m would be required to fully rebuild the hotel in accordance with the expectations of Council, taking into account the conservation of the heritage place.
Some preliminary discussions with the owners and Council have taken place this past week with the idea of fast tracking the prospect of a re-development plan.
At present the hotel is not economically attractive from an investment viewpoint, nor is it physically attractive to locals and visitors to Diggers Rest.
The existence of a blueprint for the hotel would help encourage potential investors, reducing the risk of uncertainty and pave the way to re-developing the site.
If you’re keen to be part of this project, then please give me, David O’Connor a call on 0417 300 707 or join the facebook group via the following link:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/204256669983544/