What happened
Toora sits between the Strzelecki hills and Corner Inlet in South Gippsland, and Edward Garth built the Royal Standard there in 1889, less than a year after the first land sales in the township. The date is set into the pediment with four stars. The state heritage record calls it the oldest surviving hotel in the shire and a rare intact one: two storeys of brick and roughcast render, a timber verandah with a Federation balustrade of about 1900, and no substantial change beyond a 1939 extension on the Stanley Street side. Garth advertised superior accommodation for the sportsman and the tourist, with the line to Melbourne running past. The Funston family bought it in 1920 and traded it under their own name for a while; the Collingwood full-back Jack Regan kept it later and coached the local football club. A storm in September 2024 tore bricks from the parapet and damaged the balcony. The pub closed in February 2025 when its operator went into liquidation, a council inspection that year found the building unsafe to reopen, and the company was wound up in October.
What is there now
Shut behind steel fencing, and not yet spoken for. The freeholder, Adrian Darby, says he intends to repair the building and that arguments with insurers have held the work up; he put the stock he lost at about fifty thousand dollars. Toora went through the summer of 2025 and 2026 without its pub for the first time since 1889. Whether it pours again is not settled, which is why this entry records a closure in 2025 and nothing beyond it.
Sources
- abc.net.au
- Victorian Heritage Databasevhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au
- promcoastnews.org.au
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