Cara Goodwin and Kim Jackson of the Grand Hotel, Kerri Beal of the Sam Knott Hotel, AHA vice president Ian Larkin, Bill Bell from the AHA and ex-footballer Nathan Thompson.
By Mara Pattison-Sowden
YARRA Valley hoteliers have a thing or two to show those city venues, leading by example on the latest liquor licence laws.
More than 20 of the regions’ hoteliers gathered for the annual Australian Hotels Association “Pubs, pots and profits” meeting held at the Grand Hotel in Healesville at the end of July.
AHA general manager Paddy O’Sullivan said Yarra Valley hotels had a terrific report card as far as compliance and feedback were concerned.
“They need to always be on guard with intoxication and under age issues, but the Yarra Valley is no better or worse than other parts of the state in that they share similar issues,” he said.
Legislation changes to the liquor licensing laws in July included making it compulsory for pubs, bars and nightclubs to provide free drinking water and making Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) Training compulsory for their employees.
Healesville’s Grand Hotel and Wesburn’s Sam Knott Hotel have provided free drinking water for as long as the manager can remember, and both venues say RSA training is “house policy”.
Grand Hotel manager Kim Jackson said her staff were trained to understand where the point of intoxication occurred.
“Some people get to a point where we say if they want to stay they need to drink water,” she said.
“We don’t have bottles of water, people just need to ask – it’s only tap water but we can still put it with ice or lemon.”
Sam Knott owner Kerri Beal said the event was a fantastic networking opportunity.
“It gave me a really good insight for people who I can contact from legal issues to stock taking,” she said.
“The accord that no one comes in after 11pm is working really well; all the publicans are fairly happy except for the public transport issue.”
The day also included fun and games, with the Sam Knott scoring two gongs for the “perfect pot pour”.
Ms Beal came first in the competition and won tickets for the Boxing Day Test match.
She said “30 years of pouring finally paid off.”
Read more about pub problems with public transport on pages eight and nine.
