Royal Hotel St Arnaud

After bidding farewell to the awesome outdoor deck and buffalo in the Akubra, we departed Snake Valley for our next Royal on the Tour: the Royal Hotel St Arnaud.

Unfortunately, the next Royal was not the one we had hoped.  Nor the one after that for that matter. From time to time on the Tour we show up to a Royal only to find it to have closed down (looking at you Yass). And that was regrettably the case between Snake Valley and St Arnaud.

The first one, we suspected was likely no longer in operation based on some pre-trip research. And when we arrived at the Royal Hotel Dunolly, it was exactly as we’d feared. It didn’t look like it had been open for some time.

And while we had our suspicions about Dunolly, the Royal Hotel Inglewood was a very unhappy surprise. It was one of those ‘Grand Old Royal’ type pubs and it was a genuine bummer to have shown up to find it closed.

But after the dual disappointments, we rolled on to our destination for the evening, the Royal Hotel St Arnaud. And it was worth the wait. Sometimes we get to the Royal in the town where we’re staying for the night and it’s not the best, but we’re kind of stuck with it for the evening. But we nailed it with St Arnaud. This was a quality Royal. And it was a quality Royal that officially took us over the 1/3 mark on the Tour!

To start with it looked the part. A big classic country pub on the outside. Plenty of character but still looking well maintained and inviting.

As you walk in, you’re greeted by a good sized front bar. St Arnaud is a town of about 3,500 people and a good percentage of them looked like they were in the front bar on that Saturday night. There was a cool old fashioned wood panelled bar, plenty of tables, and some comfy looking leather lounge chairs in the corner. And there were St Arnaud-ians crowding all of them. Plus there was some bonus taxidermy on the walls (no hats though so Snake Valley’s title is safe). It a description I’ve used before, but it’s a bar that’s clearly been done up a bit, but was done so with a very conscious effort not to lose the character of the old place in the process. Personally, I loved it.

Given how packed the front bar was we grabbed some pints, walked past the equally packed (and surprisingly artsy) dining room, and out to the beer garden.

It’s not the biggest or best beer garden we’ve encountered (it was no Meredith). But it was comfy, had good TV’s and ticked all the boxes.

Eventually we wandered back inside and spent a fair bit of time in the impressive, dedicated pool room. Anthony’s presence on this leg of the tour was clearly a jinx of some sort because my usual pool dominance was mysteriously absent.

And after several games of pool migrated back to the front bar that was still busy front bar. But this time we were able to corral ourselves the comfy leather chairs. Well two of us were able to at least.

As the night got later and later, it eventually became evident that it was just us and the bar staff and their friends left. But they were more than happy for us to hang out as well. And after two long days on the road (and another one to come) it was really nice to just wile away a relaxing evening with several pints.

On The Tour we often hit a pub at odd times of the day when they’re not particularly busy and the atmosphere they might otherwise have isn’t on full display.  So it was really good to hit a pub like the Royal Hotel St Arnaud that was completely full and buzzing. There was just a really good vibe from the minute we walked in around dinner time, to when we finally left around midnight. Just a really good Royal.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: St Arnaud, VIC
• Population: 3,453
• Date Visited: Saturday, November 4, 2023
• Visited By: Cory, John, and Anthony
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: Carlton Draught
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Carlton Draught (Pint)
• Price of Pint of Said Beer: $12.00
• Unique Award: Best Unexpected Royal Art
• Tour Progress: 34.3% (46/134)