In a desperate bid to fill the gap, Mr Morgan, a sociable retired Melbourne builder who came up to live near his daughter nine years ago, would invite locals around to his shed for BYO drinks. Happily, two local women, Barb Garvey and Leigh McArdle, offered to become the new Colbo Hotel publicans, and they haven't looked back. Meet them and you don't call them Mrs Garvey and Mrs McArdle. It's Barb and Leigh. Barb cooks – her chicken parmas and toasted ham and cheese sangas have become legendary and she likes to fill the plate. Leigh tends bar, and both women share the cleaning. They have three rooms of accommodation. Last Saturday they catered for their first wedding reception lunch of 55 people. They made cold meat, salads and pavlova. Both women had never run a pub before. And both are Queenslanders who married local men.

Barb says they get on so well they "could have been separated at birth". They laugh at the Victorian weather and how southerners call schooner of beer "a pot", potato scallops potato cakes, or refer to "largies" – beer bottles – as long necks. Leigh says: "You do get the odd chauvinistic comment, but oh, well, if they want a beer they stop saying things like that." About five years ago Barb had cancer and had a kidney removed but was grateful for casual shifts at the pub. "I'm not one to sit still," she says. She never imagined she and Leigh would run the place but someone had to. "We both knew the locals, it's a great little place, I mean, how can you say no? They need a pub, mate," Barb says. Pub customer Ron McTaggart, has lived 81 years of his 83 years in Colbinabbin.

His life is on these walls. He played for the Colbinabbin Grasshoppers football team from 1946 to 1960 and is still a keen trainer, although he's quit running out to the players. "I keep an eye on the players, on what's going on, holler for help if I need it." His late father, Bill, is pictured in the 1919 team – the oldest of the dozens of team photos lined up on the pub's wall, and Ron's five sons and two grandsons all played for the Grasshoppers. Mr McTaggart, a retired council worker, said the pub's closure was a "pretty poor" time. "This was the meeting place, the centre of where most people met." "It looked like things were folding up," he said. "There was another business in the town – the café-post office looked like it could close too." "These two girls have really revived the pub. It's fairly well known for the hospitality now."

Mr Morgan, when asked what he loves about Colbo, puts an arm around Barb. "What is not to like about paradise?" he says. "It is relaxed. It is supportive of everybody. Nobody who has a misfortune struggles. "A young local farmer passed away from cancer in November and left a wife and three kids. But his wheat crops all came off [were harvested] – other people stepped in and took them off, with no charge. Everything that had to be done was done." Things are looking up for Colbinabbin. The council has given the pool a reprieve for another year. A couple from Bendigo took over the general store. Now there are four or five wineries in a 10km radius, and the local semi-dried tomato factory exports to Japan. The grain farmers have had a good year. The local school has increased its enrolment from 33 to 36, the cricket team is heading for a premiership and the football team celebrates its centenary in June. Barb and Leigh work six days a week till 11pm or 1am Saturdays. Football and netball season is "flat chat" but they also get cricket teams, car clubs, and visitors from Melbourne,

"We're glad they did it," says Mr McTaggart of the women taking on the pub. "We're glad to have 'em, don't worry about that. They're all right."