115 A new era for Venus Bay General Store

A New Era For Venus Bay General Store

While the locals have always known it, the rest of Victoria is quickly coming to the realisation that Venus Bay is a gem of a seaside town. With incredible and wild surf, fabulous fishing and stunning beaches, it’s little wonder that it’s also attracted a new family, who is now at the helm of the popular Venus Bay General Store.

Words by Anita Butterworth | Photos by Doug Pell

Rupinder Multani, his wife and their two children have made a sublime sea change, swapping the charm of the Tinamba General Store for the coastal lifestyle running the Venus Bay General Store.

While they loved the dairy farming town of Tinamba, where they had lived since moving from Melbourne in 2015, it was time for a new challenge.

“It was an excellent time with the family. We loved it over there, the people are really nice, which is normal for a country town,” Rupinder said. “We’d been at Tinamba for six years and we were at that stage where we had done what we wanted to do in terms of growth.”

“An opportunity came up in Venus Bay. We tried to move in 2019 but because of Covid we couldn’t move until 2021.”

The family has been warmly welcomed by the Venus Bay community, which has a permeant population of around 1000, which swells to thousands more in the peak summer period.

The previous owners had been much-loved by the community, and according to long-time Venus Bay General Store employee Brooke Bridges, the locals have been just as welcoming of the Multani family.

“They’ve pretty much kept the winning formula, as per the last owners,” Brooke explained. “I worked with the last owners as well. It’s a true general store in that you can get pretty much anything here, so it’s like a little mini supermarket, the bottle shop area, the hardware section, we’ve got the café. We open at 7am in the morning, and we have a regular crew that turn up right on the dot to get their coffees."

“The previous owners were very much loved by the community, so people were probably a little sad to see them go but Rupinder has filled the gap very neatly and I think people are relieved that the place is still being run in the same spirit.”

The delicious offerings and convenience of the General Store also attracts a large number of tradespeople who are now regulars in the town.

“We have cakes, hot food, burgers, focaccias all your standard café fare. We look after the constant tradies that are in Venus Bay. The population is expanding, there’s houses being built all the time, always renovations, so there’s often quite a few tradesmen in town on any given day. As well as during the holidays, all of the tourists.

“By default, we’re sort of an information centre as well, we’ve got the community noticeboard inside the shop. It’s like a social hub.”

And the community is growing just as fast as the holiday crowd, with city slickers searching for their own slice of Venus Bay.

“I think the cat’s been out of the bag for a little while now, as a lot of the available houses and land along the coast heading out of Melbourne have been bought up and we were one of the last little pockets where there was still some affordable housing in a paradise setting.”

The Venus Bay General Store is open seven days a week, from 7am to 7.30pm.

Venus Bay General Store 135 - 139 Jupiter Boulevard, Venus Bay Vic 3922 Open 7 days per week

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