AFTER a long hiatus, the Narrawong Store is well on its way to once again becoming a thriving community hub.

Narrawong residents are eager to see it finished.

The store has a long history of being a meeting place for locals and travellers alike. First opened in 1859 as the Farmer’s Inn Hotel, it later became the Narrawong Hotel in 1897 and then a general store, which served the village well until it was closed in January 2017.

The structure then sat idle for five years until it was sold in February 2021, after intense community lobbying about its increasingly dilapidated state.

The new owner, Warrnambool electrician Darren Hunter, lived previously in Narrawong for 25 years and has fond memories of the building as a community hub.

When the Observer caught up with him, Mr Hunter had almost finished plastering and painting the inside of the home section of the building and was getting the shop and commercial kitchen ready for fit out.

“I rang the shire (council) and they’re supportive of getting it up and going because it’s a bit of an essential service for the community.

“So, they’re ready to come and inspect it for a health certificate as soon as it’s done and check on whatever else I need to do.”

Mr Hunter has been waiting for the builder since July 2021 but is confident this part of the makeover is almost underway.

“I’m prepping the outside for the builder now; we’ve taken all the cladding off and then they’ll fence off the store, rip all the windows out and put new ones in and then level it up,” he said.

“Once (that’s done) then I can come in and sand it all off …get the rest of the plaster in, get it all painted, and it will start looking like a shop again then.”

Other work Mr Hunter is contemplating doing is to replace the home kitchen floor and all the windows at the back, “because the existing kitchen windows don’t open”.

The space and light in the living room of the home is a great surprise, with newly sanded timber floors, large picture windows with views across the 1.5-acre site to Mt Clay, an original fireplace, and new downlights installed by Mr Hunter – all just waiting for the final touches.

Now featuring a false plaster ceiling, the room would have been an original part of the store’s first life as an inn, which once boasted a high ceiling and bare lining boards, he said.

“I was tempted to rip all the plaster off and go back to the original, but thought I’d go crazy prepping it all up! It would be a hell of a job, but it would look good. And the same in the bedrooms, the original ceilings are quite high.”

Sheets of Masonite cover the old floor in the bedrooms and hall, though the rough-sawn timber boards – probably cut from Mt Clay and milled on site, Mr Hunter said – are still apparent in the store.

Among the myriad jobs still waiting to be tackled include getting the old bottle shop going, which ceased operations years before the store closed.

Mr Hunter remembers it well. “I was just living down at the corner and it was really handy, so I’m going to put in a new compressor (for the cool rooms) and get those going again.”

This idea will bode well for the voices clamouring to see the space up and running as a general store again but especially as a café or wine bar.

And with the rumour that there is an old cellar under the floor somewhere, for the growing number of locals and tourists passing through it would be quite a feature.

But none of this is going to happen overnight; there’s still plenty to do. And Mr Hunter is not prejudicing any future plans for its use.

“I’m just getting it ready for someone to move in and lease it and they can run whatever they want, really!”