Ex-owner in breach, too

Man who shut down beer garden had no permit

THE man who led the fight to shut down a 164-year-old Geelong pub’s beer garden has admitted he also ran the outdoor area in breach of the building permit when he was the previous owner.

The Deck lost its fight to save its beer garden on Monday, after noise complaints from residents of an apartment complex built two decades after the outdoor area.

Owners of The Deck — on the corner of Gheringhap and Smythe streets, and first licensed in 1855 — on Monday accepted a City of Greater Geelong consent order, and will now convert its beer garden into carparking.

The city had argued the beer garden was being operated without planning approval, and that the music and patron noise was in breach of its 1997 permit

The chairman of the neighbouring apartment complex owner’s corporation, Paul Brady, sold the business to new owners about three years ago, soon before launching a campaign to have the beer garden closed.

When asked if he had also operated the beer garden in contravention of the building permit, Mr Brady this week conceded: “Well, it’s against the building permit, yes.”

He argued that he ran the beer garden as a smokers area, before the new owners added live music and opened a bar section — seeing the beer garden explode in popularity.

“It’s just out of control,” Mr Brady said.

“Because I never had music in there, no amplified music, nothing amplified in there. You put a bunch of university kids in there and when they’re going ‘skol, skol skol’, and ‘happy birthday’ at one in the morning and all that sort of crap . . . the noise is ridiculous. There’s really scant regard for any of the neighbours, and that’s been the case since day one.”

Company director George Zurcas had previously told the Geelong Advertiser about his surprise at Mr Brady’s campaign to shut the beer garden, claiming to have “cut the deal” to buy the business from the former owner’s balcony overlooking the pub.

“The guy I bought the business off is the main culprit trying to shut the beer garden down,” Mr Zurcas told the Addy last month.

On Monday Mr Zurcas briefly shared his disappointment at the loss of the beer garden.

“I have no comment on what Geelong city council has put my company through, I wish that I never bought a business in Geelong as we are against unlimited ratepayers’ funding,” he said.