For such a small town, Toora, out east on the South Gippsland Highway, certainly held its own back in the day when it came to pubs per capita. Not anything like the inner city suburbs of Melbourne but still, The Railway and of course the one remaining establishment, the oldest pub anywhere within the South Gippsland shire, the Royal Standard, served patrons well from the earliest days of the township’s settlement.
The Royal, the Standard, Royal Standard, or just plain the pub, has stood on its current site since 1889 when its first proprietor, Edward Garth first opened its doors to the public. It was only a year before that the first land sales for Toora went up in Collins Street, Melbourne.
“This Hotel, from its central position on the Great Southern Line to Melbourne, and proximity to the waters of Corner Inlet, whose nooks and bays are well known to the proprietor, offers superior accommodation to the sportsman and tourist,” was a small excerpt of the lengthy advert Garth proudly placed in the Gippsland Guardian at the time.
Garth’s joy wasn’t to last though, as not long after opening, his young daughter drowned in the clay pit out back of the hotel which was dug to make bricks for its building. It’s a sad tale that is detailed in the third of a series of books titled The Garth Trilogy, by Lynette McDermott. Based upon a true story, it provides the lives and adventures of five generations of the Garths that begins with four convicts, three transported on the First Fleet and one on the Second.
The Standard went up pretty much side by side with The Railway that sat on the opposite side of Stanley Street. The Standard, being a double storey affair and offering 40 rooms was a much more classier affair until fire mysteriously burned the competition to the ground and The National Park Hotel rose from the ashes in 1914.
In 1920, the Funston’s appeared and swept up ownership of both the National and the Standard, the latter of which proprietor Fred renamed Funston’s Hotel. Fred was a keen proponent of the term ‘Toora for Tourists” advertised his property as being
“The Centre of all Sporting and Scenic Attractions in South Gippsland (perfect roads)”. Funston’s idea of perfect roads would be a whole lot different to what we would consider perfect today of course.
With the exception of a 1939 extension on the north side of the Stanley Street frontage, the building remains largely intact and as it were when Garth built it. A rare commodity amongst the historical Victorian pub stock.
Fred left on the first day of war in 1939, at the same time the National was was delicensed and eventually became a guest house. We can only assume the years of the depression and impending war meant there was only sufficient business for one pub in the town
As for the Standard, it went through a succession of owners both pre the Funston’s and post until Collingwood footballer Jack Regan came along. Nicknamed the “Prince of Full-backs”, he played for the club throughout the 1930s until 1941, and again in ‘43 and ‘46. Post playing career, Regan bought a few pubs across Victoria but it was Toora that took his fancy and while living on the Prom Coast he coached the Toora Football Club. and likely was the reason the club affiliated with the Coll Pies.
Well, that’s part one of the tales of pubs from our region done with. Next time we shall bring you bang up to date with the Royal Standard’s story. And if you have any juicy tales or just plain historical facts from either the Standard or any of the other pubs across our region that you feel ought to be shared with a wider audience that we could use to tell their story, we would love to hear from you.
