Expensive liquor licenses force closure of The Tote

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Expensive liquor licenses force closure of The Tote

Fri 15 Jan 2010

One of Melbourne’s premier live music pubs, The Tote, will close this Sunday 17 January, due to what owner Bruce Milne describes as the crippling “high-risk” conditions that has been placed on the venue’s liquor license.

“I can’t afford to keep fighting Liquor Licensing,” said Milne, who has run the venue for the last nine years, in a lengthy letter of explanation. “The ‘high risk’ conditions they have placed on the Tote’s license make it impossible to trade profitably. I can’t afford the new ‘high risk’ fees they have imposed. I can’t afford to keep fighting them at VCAT. I can’t renegotiate a lease in this environment.”

“It’s not dumb luck that the Tote has escaped serious violence,” Milne argues. “I believe the business has been run responsibly. People don’t come to the Tote to fight. They come because they have a passion for music and love to be in an historic venue that reeks of that same passion.”

Milne further explained to national radio broadcaster triple j, “We’ve never had bloodshed and clearly, we shouldn’t be considered a high-risk venue.”

Since the mid 1980’s the Tote has traded on Johnston Street in Collingwood, hosting a wide array of international and local bands. Hugely successful home-grown act Magic Dirt were famously discovered when they first played at The Tote.
“It’s last drinks at the Tote”, Milne lamented. “The era of The Tote is over. If you love the place, come and have a beer with us this weekend.”