By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT
AT the back of the long closed Merton Rush Hotel, previously known as the Latrobe Valley Hotel, the rear entrance and undercover carpark was a hive for anti-social behaviour in Morwell.
Graffiti, rubbish, broken windows, and abandoned tents could routinely be found behind the vacant building on the corner of Princes Drive and Collins Street over the last few years.
Evidence of fires were even visible with burn marks up the exterior walls.
After many complaints, a fence was recently erected (by the private owners of the building) to cover up the entry of the carpark from the footpath, subsequently seeing the occupants move down the road to a barbecue area on Princes Dr.
One concerned local, Laurie Williams said the rear of Merton Rush Hotel had become a “haven for the homelessness” and become “an ongoing issue”.
Hosting his Saturday morning radio show on Gippsland FM, Mr Williams would typically park underneath the old pub, but began to see people congregate around there.
“(I) look across to the back carpark of the hotel and usually there’s rubbish everywhere, there’s graffiti, broken windows,” he told the Express.
“Sometimes there’s people talking, yelling, arguing – sometimes there’s fires being lit.”
Mr Williams said these issues persisted for nearly three years, but with the fencing put up, the area has been vacated since.
Despite it being cleared, the rubbish left behind still remains.
It has also meant that more individuals have settled at the free barbecue area, which had already become a commonplace for the homeless and other anti-social behaviour.
Mr Williams wonders why there doesn’t seem to be any help available for these people.
“There seems to be a lot of refuges for all
these people, but there doesn’t seem to be a refuge for homeless people,” Mr Williams quipped.
Local police, in conjunction with Latrobe City Council, undertake joint engagement with individuals sleeping rough to facilitate access to appropriate support services, according to a council spokesperson.
These services can assist with housing, complex mental health issues, and access to other relevant support services.
Other local outreach programs have also been established by community members to provide support for the homeless – which sometimes can be a diificult task.
Originally opened as the Latrobe Valley Hotel in 1958, it was later renamed to the Merton Rush Hotel due to the local power station workers that often arrived for ‘the big rush’ after knocking off from their shifts.
While it does have some chequered history, the Morwell pub was known as a family-friendly establishment, and like Commerical Road’s boarded-up Morwell Central Hotel, was a pokies-less business.
It served as a nightclub in one life, and most noteworthy, featured the supposed second-longest bar in Victoria, sprawling close to 60 metres with 14 different beer taps through the bar and bistro.
In 1989, the Merton Rush Hotel was sold to the Carlton United Brewery for multiple millions.
As such, the building still features a Carlton Draught sign poking off the side of it.
In 2011, a drug raid was executed by Morwell police on the premise in relation to an organised drug syndicate across Melbourne suburbs.
Four Morwell men were charged for the trafficking of amphetamines.
The Merton Rush Hotel has been closed since 2017.
