September 3, 2021
(Ivan Kemp) 248900_03
Something big brewing Belmont brothers-in-law Tim Dean and Mark Bruce have released a new craft beer in tribute to the street connecting their homes, where their passion began. “We’re backyardies, at the end of the day,” said Tim, one half of Mt Pleasant Rd Brewers. The teacher and his paramedic brother-in-law began researching hops and investing in serious home-brewing equipment a few years ago. After serving as guinea pigs, neighbours, friends and family encouraged them to take their brewing to the “next level”, Tim said. During COVID-19 they channelled their efforts into their Tropical Eclipse Pale Ale, brewing several trial batches. “It was crafted and perfected during lockdown,” Mark said. They have teamed with Bells Beach Brewing to can 1500 litres of the drop, available at some local bottle shops. They hope to become known as Geelong’s truly-local small-time purveyor of frothies. “It’s all about being local and supporting local,” Tim said. Details: mtpleasantrdbrewers.com.au Luke Voogt
TIM DEAN AND MARK BRUCE
Roadmap to nowhere A lack of clarity on Victoria’s road out of lockdown has left local businesses desperately trying to survive in the lurch, according to Geelong’s tourism board. Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine chief executive Brett Ince urged state and federal governments to provide a clearer roadmap out of lockdown. “We know there are some businesses where this is crunch time,” he said. “A detailed roadmap for the tourism and hospitality industry would provide some certainty for individual businesses to reopen.”
Earlier this week Premier Daniel Andrews said Victoria’s lockdown would ease slightly on September 23, with the state due to reach 70 per cent of people having received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose. Mr Andrews also hinted lockdown could ease in regional Victoria next week. But state government is yet to release case number thresholds or further details on vaccination targets. “There’s some hope but it provides a lot of ambiguity because we don’t understand what that looks like yet,” Mr Ince said. He compared the of lack clarity to state government’s roadmap out of lockdown last
That calls for
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By Luke Voogt
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year, which included more specific targets and instructions on how restrictions would ease. “From a tourism and hospitality perspective we were expecting a lot more detail,” he said. “That’s what we thought was coming yesterday or today. Throughout the pandemic, this is the time that businesses have been most uncertain.” The lack of detailed thresholds for metropolitan Melbourne has further increased the uncertainty for Geelong businesses, according to Mr Ince. “We are so reliant on Melbourne as our main market,” he said. While acknowledging various state
government support for hospitality and tourism businesses, Mr Ince called for a similar scheme to the federal and NSW governments’ joint JobSaver subsidy. “Whilst there is government support that is being provided right now, we’re hearing loud and clear that without wage subsidies … it’s going to be really difficult for businesses to get to the other side,” he said. Mr Ince, who is plans to get his second AstraZeneca shot in a few weeks, urged locals get vaccinated. “It’s really clear that the only way out of this is vaccination levels,” he said. “It’s out best shot of travelling again.”
Our family have been proudly conducting funerals in Geelong for four generations. We are honoured to still be serving the Geelong community as a family owned and operated business.
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