Lorne beer garden on the outer

LORNE Aquatic and Angling Club will lose its popular beer garden ahead of summer as state authorities wind back business pandemic supports.

The club’s external extension, which it calls the ‘Outer Sanctum’, must come down by August 21 after an order from the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority.

The Outer Sanctum had become a much-loved edition to the angling club in recent months and helped it cater for ballooning growth.

LAAC leaders say its membership had tripled to about 1800 members in the seven years since it began planning work for a clubhouse upgrade as part of the Point Grey redevelopment.

Club commodore Keith Miller said LAAC would not have been a viable business during the pandemic without the outdoor space, which locals built with donations and volunteer labour.

“The club sees the Outer Sanctum as a training run for the future footprint of the club, and it’s become an essential part of viability of the club,” Mr Miller said.

“The recent VCAT findings at Point Grey have may delayed the start of the project for a while but in the interim, there’s no harm done in looking after the Lorne community by extending the outdoor space.”

Mr Miller said a thriving club paid dividends for the broader Lorne community, such as an education hub for students and playing an integral role in fundraising for projects and organisations such as emergency services.

GORCAPA said the club was one of six businesses granted temporary permission to extend its outdoor dining areas into public open space while COVID-19 restrictions limited indoor patronage.

The Authority said the measures “were always intended to be temporary” due to state legislation that dictated what were permitted uses of coastal land.

GORCAPA said the land would return to public open space after the removal of the outdoor area.

The Authority is in discussions with LAAC about a permanent revamp of the clubhouse.

GORCAPA and Regional Development Victoria say all aspects of the project are currently under review.