PENSHURST has recently experienced a business revival.

With new shopfronts and owners bolstering the ranks, the town’s businesspeople are allying to capitalise on tourism growth in the region and their location on key travel routes.

This is the first of three articles talking to locals and examining what may lie ahead for the town.

The Business Case

AT least 716,000 cars travelled through Penshurst in 2017, according to the latest VicRoads traffic data available.

Those numbers are before the town’s neighbours really got on the map when Port Fairy won 2019 Aussie Town of the Year, and the opening of the Grampians Peaks Trail made a national splash.

The trail’s Stage 2 opened in 2021 and took home crowning glories with ‘Best in Class’ and the Gold Award for Architectural Design at the 2022 Australian Good Design Awards, and earned the state’s highest design honour, the Victorian Architecture Medal.

Penshurst is right in between Dunkeld/Halls Gap and Port Fairy/Warrnambool, and drivers must go through it when travelling on the Hamilton Highway. 

At least one business owner believes the number of cars through Penshurst could now be well over a million a year.

In the last 12 months, Tourism Research Australia saw a 59 per cent increase in tourist spend in the Grampians compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Statewide, Victoria hit a record high of $36 billion spent by visitors this year and Visit Victoria’s Stay Close, Go Further campaign has reached 18 million people around Australia.

The Post Office

SMACK bang in the centre of town is Bruce and Jenny Eccles’ post office.

As Australia Post veterans, they have built businesses around the state and say Penshurst is absolutely a standout location.

“This is a great spot for a young family to start off, or older people to retire, or people who want to start up businesses,” Mrs Eccles said.

“It is still affordable, but with space - two schools, a kinder, hospital, a bowling club, substantial football club.”

“I do not doubt it, this town will be like another Hepburn-Trentham type town,” Mr Eccles said, referencing two tourist magnets in the Daylesford area known for their natural beauty, shopping options and old-world charm.

“You want to go to the coast? It’s 50 minutes, you are in Port Fairy, one of the best towns in Australia with multiple tourism awards.

“You have Halls Gap, multiple tourism awards.

“The Great Southern Trail is down here on the Great Ocean Road.

“We can hook the boat up and go down to Nelson and Pritchards, the Glenelg River.

“Two hours and you are in the Coonawarra region.”

The town itself has much to offer, with its dormant volcano, discovery centre, botanic gardens and the bird sanctuary at Yatmerone Reserve.

“So, we knew what we were talking about, knew what we were looking at when we came here,” Mr Eccles said.

“Everything is here to happen, you just need the volcano to erupt.”

What It Takes

NOT obvious are the businesses who operate out of their own homes, manufacturing products like earrings and metalwork to sell online.

“We recently put together a group of businesses to rebirth the farmers’ market in the town and that could be an ongoing event,” Mr Eccles said.

“We are hoping to do the first one in March.”

Penshurt’s lack of sewerage gives it a distinct advantage.

“Penshurst is an old septic town, so most of the properties are on two blocks so people have the luxury of space.

“If they put a shed in, they can manufacture and still run a business from home.

“We have people who have moved to the town … who regularly do markets in Warrnambool and Hamilton and they are very talented people.

“We have a fantastic bakery where people come all over for food and everyone knows it as - ‘oh Penshurst, that’s the town with the bakery’.”

“The group we have got has 24 people involved in it in all walks of business,” he said.

“They are motivated, they do not need motivating.”

He made the point that anyone coming off the Spirit of Tasmania may want to only drive a couple of hours before they rest for the night, and Penshurst’s caravan park and hotel gives them the opportunity to do that.

“If you don’t want to take a big 21-foot, 24-foot caravan down the Great Ocean Road, or you want to go to Robe, this is the place you want to come through.

“It ticks all the boxes, we just have to sell Penshurst.”

One Step Back

“UNFORTUNATELY, we have started this and driven this, but we are selling the business,” Mr Eccles relayed, explaining his children and grandkids all still live in Gippsland.

“It is a half-finished plan in a sense, but our demographic has come in and made this place a better place and a comfortable place to shop.”

Reflecting on the importance of keeping small towns alive, he pointed out what he sees as making them special.

“These rural towns, they are community hubs,” he said.

“There are people who come in the door who are in their 60s, 70s; they are not technology minded, or they have lost a partner and they need someone who can help them out with tech or a few forms.

“That is part of the job in this town.

“It is not just about business and how much I can take off you, it is about how we can serve you as a community, and how the community can serve the business back.

“How many businesses do you walk into now and someone looks up at you like ‘you’re interfering with my texting time’?

Mr Eccles said properties on the market don’t last long in this town now.

“They are onto it because it is a peaceful town, it is easy to go in and it has got a good community spirit to it.”

The Grocery

When it comes to community spirit, Jag and Harbans Saini at the Penshurst Grocery have it in spades.

Mr and Mrs Saini are highly spoken of in town and have made Penshurst their home since they arrived with their two boys and renovated the tired grocery there 11 years ago.

“This place, it was not like this at all - this was a really, really run-down place,” Mr Saini said.

“Nothing was here and not many people used to come.”

They were on the hunt for an opportunity when they visited friends in Lake Bolac who ran a supermarket.

“We told them if they find anything similar to let us know, and they found this.

“They told us the same thing - ‘look, it’s a really run-down business, it’s a big risk.’

“But we said we would take the risk.”

The big thing he wants to see is better promotion of Penshurst’s natural assets - he made it a point that not many people know about the bird sanctuary at Yatmerone Reserve or the walk up the volcano.

For Mr Saini, putting in the work to improve what you have, taking pride in it and building its reputation is key to success - both for their grocery, and their town.

“We moved here 11 years ago back in 2012,” he said.

“Since then, we have noticed a lot of growth in this town, a lot of new businesses.”

And their grocery?

“We have renovated the whole place and we are doing great now, people still come and they get surprised - ‘You’ve got everything!’”

Lockdowns meant many discovered there was plenty of shopping on offer locally, and resultingly business has been better and better since.

He said when people shop local, they give business owners the opportunity to offer better prices and increase their range.

“The truth is, when we bought this place we were not sure how the people were going to take us, being Indian,” Mr Saini said.

“But we are very happy, they all accepted us very well and now we are part of the community.

“We were a bit scared, but it was totally the opposite.

“We try our best to do whatever we can do for the community.”