Aaron Scales sells iconic Dartmouth Pub, new manager talks about its future

Mr Scales, who has run the pub in the Mitta Valley for 18 years, says it was time to "move on and do other things", although he has plans to keep his connection to the place by working part-time behind the bar.

Brothers Glenn and Grant Jukawics from Melbourne, who are jointly in final negotiations to seal the deal for the pub which was advertised for $520,000, said they had no plans to modernise the building.

Mr Scales said the pair showed enthusiasm for the challenge of running a country pub which he knows from experience "isn't as easy as some people might think".

"You're always on the go, basically you've got to work all the time," he said. "It's not a business that can afford to be paying staff all the time.

"You've got to put your own blood sweat and tears into it but this pair are very keen, it's a bit of a tree change for them, they love fishing and camping and just love a country pub so they are ideal for this."

Glenn Jukawics, a first-time pub owner, said the last thing he and his brother would do was try to make the pub "like an upmarket city place", and wrinkled his nose at the thought of introducing poker machines.

"No pokies at all, it's a community spirited place," he said.

"Maybe it works in some towns where the pokies have been keeping the pub going, but for us, it's going well without them, so that's the way we'll roll.

"We're not going to modernise it, we're just going to do some rustic pub art, farm art, a similar approach to the Mitta pub, we might put in some powered camp sites, maybe the same sort of thing you see in Bright."

The brothers, both keen fishermen, are familiar with the area. Glenn, who runs a small business on the Bellarine Peninsula, said the pair had "done a lot of reccies" before taking the plunge.

"It's time for a tree change, we both love fishing and we always seem to end up in the Mitta so when we're up that way, we pop in to the Dartmouth Pub for our fish and chips," he said.

"When we heard it was on the market we thought, let's get it. We've done a fair bit of due diligence, we've been up there probably six times this year just to meet everyone, see what's going on and ask a lot of questions in the district."

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As for Mr Scales, who is a councillor for Towong Shire, Dartmouth will always be his home.

"It was just time, for me, after 18 years," he said. "I'm getting married in November, we're staying in the area, we're going to build another house here in Dartmouth."

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