Plans to reopen Mount Egerton's general store

New owners Dane Gosper and Nina Roxburgh moved to the small town east of Ballarat last year, setting to work on the building after falling in love with the community.

The massive storms hit about five weeks after they picked up the keys, ripping off the front verandah, but their neighbours jumped in to help.

Coming from a hospitality background in Melbourne, the couple knew they wanted to reopen the shop and offer something new to the town.

"I personally have always wanted to run my own shop and potentially a bar and things like that at some point," Mr Gosper said.

"My family are from the area - they moved up here about 15 or 20 years ago, my mum and dad are in Ballan," Ms Roxburgh added.

"We've sort of always known about the area, we've driven through Mount Egerton plenty of times, and always liked the rolling hills and greenery, and then we saw the general store was for sale, and we were looking for something in Melbourne and having no luck.

"We checked it out up here and realised it had all this potential, not only to help us realise our own dreams of owning a home, but also having our own business, so we decided to go for it."

Plans are currently before Moorabool Shire Council for a packaged liquor permit, though the store - to be named Half Pace - will initially focus on takeaway coffee and pastries, and essentials like milk, bread, and local produce.

"Over time, we'll see how it progresses with what the needs of the town are, and what we're willing to turn it into and do with it - hopefully eventually it'll turn into a kind of wine bar as well," Mr Gosper said.

"The timeline for that is open-ended - we're not set up yet for sit-in stuff, we'd need other licences for that."

"I think it would have been really unfortunate if whoever bought this place didn't do something with the shop," Ms Roxburgh said.

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"I can always imagine the shop being a multi-faceted space - one thing during the day and one thing at night, it can service different interests - serving the community, but also getting the tourist traffic and day trip drivers and weekend visitors, whatever they need as well, marrying those things together."

Internal and external works are well-under way - Ms Roxburgh said her parents were now familiar faces in town, helping out with the painting - and if all goes well the business could be open by January.

"Since moving here, we've already met so many people in the town, we can see how excited everyone is when they find out we're going to reopen something here," Ms Roxburgh said.

"Sometimes the reaction is, 'I don't care what it is you're doing, do it, do something'.

"It's really hard to find that (community spirit) in Melbourne, where we were living before - we've just reached a stage in our lives when we really want to be part of a community rather than being an anonymous person in a big city."

"I think it's been a lovely place to find ourselves in, and hopefully we can provide something for the town that everybody wants," Mr Gosper said.

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