WHEN Vietnam War veteran Greg Carter purchased the Macarthur Hotel in December 2019, the move was supposed to be permanent, but after just 18 months, Mr Carter and his partner Nicky Keller have closed the Cockatoo Rise War Veterans Retreat and put the building up for sale.

It’s not a decision the pair came to lightly; Mr Carter has ill health and his doctors have advised him to slow down.

Mr Carter’s time in Macarthur has not been without controversy, and tensions came to a head last month when the property was put on the market and Macarthur locals expressed their displeasure on the Facebook page ‘We Lived in Macarthur, Victoria’.  

Allegations of unpaid invoices, free labour, an unwelcoming environment, and disrespect for the local community filled the comments section.

Mr Carter said he would prefer people spoke to him directly rather than in an online forum and the people who commented on Facebook had apparently never physically met him.

“I’m saddened by the fact that not one of these people have come and looked me in the eye and talked to me about the issue that they’ve got to through the back door, that’s the thing that saddens me,” he said. 

With conflicting recollection of events, it’s unlikely Mr Carter and the frustrated residents will come to any sort of agreement before the couple leave town.

The issue was also raised with the property’s asking price, which was initially set above $700,000.

Since then, Mr Carter and Ms Keller have reduced the asking price and said the original price was overpriced on the advice of their real estate agent and had taken into consideration the hot property market.

The nearly three quarters of an acre property has now been priced as a family home at $499,000.

Mr Carter first opened the doors of his home in Bairnsdale 17 years ago to veteran’s struggling with mental health and with reintegration into civilian life.

He said veterans would sometimes stay for months at a time, spend time together gathered around a campfire, and do work around the property.

“You get more from a vet sitting around the campfire with a couple of beers and this is why vets generally don’t talk to family and friends because it is nearly impossible to get over to them what they’ve experienced.

“Talking to other vets, they talk, and the reason most vets have problems is that they don’t talk.”

As well as the veteran’s retreat, Mr Carter housed a large collection of war artefacts in the museum on the premises.

He said it’s not yet clear where the museums six-wheel defence Land Rover, which was formerly used in operations by the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RAEME), would end up but that the rest of the collection would be relocated to South Australia.

“The Land Rover we don’t know but all the artefacts are going to a veteran’s group in South Australia, and their local council is going to set up a specific room so it will all be rehoused again which is really nice,” Mr Carter said. 

While the couple have made the decision not to continue with welfare work in any official capacity, Ms Keller said they did intend to continue lending a hand where needed.

“We’ll still have our home open to people who need it … we’re still who we are holding our hand out to people,” she said.

Mr Carter and Ms Keller have now advertised the bluestone building as a five-bedroom house and plan to move to somewhere else in Regional Victoria once they sell.