Drovers Arms Hotel

The Drovers Arms Hotel is the country pub at 34 Midland Highway, Goornong, about 30 minutes east of Bendigo on the road to Echuca, and it welcomes dogs in the outdoor seating. Once one of several watering holes in town, it is the one that survived, and it now works as the social heart of the district: counter meals, cold beer, a kids playground out the back and a pool table in the bar.

The dog setup

Dogs join you in the relaxed outdoor area, which suits a road-trip stop with the dog still in the car, and there is plenty of room to park a ute and trailer. Keep the dog on lead and away from the playground zone out the back. There is no dog menu or water-bowl notice, so carry water on hot north Victorian afternoons and ask the staff, who are used to travellers pulling in mid-drive.

The menu and the week

The kitchen turns out generous pub classics: roasts of the day, steaks, pizzas and weekly specials, with a broader vegetarian, vegan and gluten-conscious selection than most pubs this size manage. Cold beer on tap, regional wines and coffee round it out. Hours run Tuesday and Wednesday from 3:30pm, Thursday from 11:30am, Friday and Saturday from 11:30am to 11pm, and Sunday from 11:30am to 9:30pm; the pub is closed Mondays.

Getting there and parking

Goornong sits directly on the Midland Highway, so parking is easy out front, and the pub is a natural lunch break on the Bendigo to Echuca run. If you are making a weekend of it, English's Bridge campground on the Campaspe is a dog-friendly base in the same town. Axedale Tavern is the nearest other country pub with a reputation for welcoming dogs, and Heathcote Dog Park makes a good leg-stretch stop if you come up from the south.

More options are on the Goornong destination page and in the Victoria restaurants index.