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www.wangarattachronicle.com.au
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FRIDAY, October 4, 2024
$2.00 INC. GSTST
Daylight Saving Time begins at 2am this Sunday,, NUDGE THOSE CLOCKS FORWARD October 6, when clocks are put forward one hour.r.
NEW LANDMARK IT’S big, bold and bubbly, and certain to grab attention. This ‘Bubbles in the landscape’ sculpture created by artist Alexander Knox stands over six metres high and was installed on Wednesday at the gateway to the King Valley, at the intersection of the Wangaratta-Whitfield Road and Snow Road. Full story page 3. PHOTO: Anita McPherson
WITH COUNCIL CANDIDATES Page 4
NEW YEAR’S EVE SURPRISE Page 5
GRAND-SLAM WINNING COACH LOCKED IN
Sport
After-dark shift Grand Central Hotel closed until December,, in change g to Wangaratta’s g social scene
WANGARATTA’S weekend nightclub scene is set for a shift over coming months, with Murphy Street’s Grand Central Hotel closed for renovations until at least early December. The hotel - affectionately known as The GC - held its ‘last call’ on Saturday before the lengthy break, with owner Steve Wilson now pre-
BY SIMONE KERWIN skerwin@ nemedia.com.au
paring for the venue’s first major renovation since 1994. With other CBD venues’ closing times ranging from 12am at Old Faithfulls and The Railyard to 1am at the Pinsent Hotel and
Wangaratta RSL, it will be a significant change to the late-night scene in the rural city’s centre, where the Grand Central opens until around 4am on weekends. Mr Wilson, who also owns the North Eastern Hotel in Spearing Street, said works valued at more than $300,000 would involve stripping out the back sec-
tion of the Grand Central for a full refurbishment. “Our hope is to re-open sometime in December hopefully early December, but obviously things can pop up when you’re stripping things back to the bare bones on a 115-year-old building,” he said. “It’s not the best time of year to be doing it - we were
hoping to start the works in mid-winter, but it just hasn’t worked out that way. “On re-opening, though, it will be a fresh, new venue, and we have some new acts in the pipeline.” Mr Wilson said the hotel was one of only a small number of late-night venues in the district - two currently operating in Albury and one
in Cobram - with patrons’ changing habits, particularly post-COVID, having had an effect on the scene. “Together with the cinema, we closed longer than everyone else in COVID, so for the two affected years, we had 12 weeks of trade, and most of that was restricted,” he said. ■ Continued page 10
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