The Carringbush Hotel enters liquidation with just 63 cents in the bank
A popular pub has collapsed owing $1.2 million.
Before its collapse, the 135-year-old The Carringbush Hotel said it would need to charge $20 for a beer to survive.
The pub was shuttered in June this year but still fell into liquidation.
A leaked creditor note from insolvency firm CJG Advisory found The Carringbush Hotel had outstanding debts worth $1.28 million and just 63c left in the bank at the time it went into liquidation.
The report was filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). It showed $1.17 million was owed to unsecured creditors with $411,000 outstanding to the Australian Taxation Office. Secured creditors were owed $21,000, while preferential creditors had outstanding debt of $83,000.
Any return to creditors is unlikely.
Carringbush Hotel owners put its demise down to trading losses, poor economic conditions and Covid-19.
Liquidator Matthew Gollant wrote in his report: “Following its inception, the company incurred significant expenses improving the premises to an appropriate trading condition, however was only able to trade for approximately 12 months prior to trading restrictions being placed on the business due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Following the pandemic, a number of disputes between the company and the landlord of the premises resulted in various VCAT cases being brought against the company. Facing the rising costs for supplies, the directors formed the view that the business may be unprofitable and took steps to wind up the company.”
Between July 2021 and to June 2023, The Carringbush Hotel made a loss of $460,000. Prior to that between July 2019 and June 2021 it made a profit of $384,000.
The Carringbush Hotel operators had also been locked in a bitter legal dispute with the landlords.
According to the liquidator, the landlord said the property was damaged and a $40,000 debt was outstanding.
The landlord is interested in purchasing the pub and its name.
Jonathan Jackson, 23rd September 2026
