Couple come out of retirement to buy iconic Koroit pub Mickey Bourke's

Peter and Janet Archbold have been running pubs in the south-west and across Melbourne for 40 years.

But Mr Archbold also has a family link to the hotel dating back to the 1940s.

"My mother worked at that hotel 75 years ago," he said.

The couple had retired about five years ago but the lure of other people's company will see them soon return behind the bar once again. "We're back," Mr Archbold said.

He said he had been "missing pubs" but it was the people he missed the most.

And two years of the pandemic didn't help, Mr Archbold said.

Retirement, he said, meant getting "too old too quick".

"You need to be moving around to do things," he said.

"We started in the Western District and I suppose we are going to finish in the Western District."

Mr Archbold's career running pubs started in Penshurst, and then in 1981 they bought the Woolsthorpe Hotel.

They then moved to Derrinallum and bought the Royal Hotel in Warrnambool where they spent six or seven years before moving to Melbourne.

Across the city they had hotels including: The Albion in Port Melbourne, Tower Hotel in Hawthorn, The Bush Inn in Toorak, Castle Hotel in North Melbourne and the Hotel Kew.

His long career earnt him a life membership of the Australian Hotels Association, an honour not bestowed on many.

Mr Archbold has another sentimental attachment to Koroit.

Not only did his mother, Maureen Carey, work at Mickey Bourke's, Mr Archbold said he also printed the last ever Koroit Sentinel.

That's a bit of history no one would know about," he said.

While his experience of pubs in recent years has been across Melbourne, he said there was not really much difference between city and country hotels.

"People say there is a big difference. But you still have your same locals in the city that you have in the country, you probably just have more of them," Mr Archbold said.

The couple plan to make some changes, but they won't be straight away and would only be subtle.

"It's a well-run establishment. We'll tinker with things as we go, set it our way," he said. "It's got a nice atmosphere."

Falk & Co sales manager Gary Attrill said even though the property market had slowed, quality properties were still in high demand.

"I can't disclose the sales price but vendors were very happy with the result and look forward to the next stage of life after two decades serving patrons," he said.

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