Historical information

For around the last 70 years, a familiar sight on the Western Highway at Stawell West has been the Roadhouse/Service Station known as ‘Winston Lodge.’ The building was constructed on Crown Land over the years 1950-1952 by local builders, Mr. Bobby Briggs and Mr. Clem Faulkner for Mrs. Winifred Jenkins. Briggs and Faulkner also handled the construction of the new E.S. and A. Bank building in Main Street.
Mrs. Jenkins realised that a stopover was needed in Stawell for both truckies and travellers alike. The family believe that the daughter of Mrs. Jenkins, Lyla drew up the plans for Winston Lodge in an exercise book and the construction was erected from these primitive sketches.
Winston Lodge finally opened for business on Saturday March 1st 1952 after many delays due to building material shortages and was an immediate success with local farmers and interstate truckies. The conditions were basic, but the food was excellent in the style of the period – soups, roast dinners and hot apple pies with fresh cream from a dairy on Halls Gap Road. All the cooking was done on a wood fired double oven stove with water pipes running through the firebox to provide the hot water for the Lodge.
The name Winston Lodge is quite a story. The family of Mrs. Jenkins believe that a financial backer of the construction was a family by the name of Johnston. So, a combination of WINifred and JohnSTON became Winston Lodge. It was not named after the English Prime Minister of the day Sir Winston Churchill but maybe Winifred Jenkins was a supporter of the PM.
Winifred eventually sold the Lodge in December 1957 and in the years since there have been many owners/proprietors and the building has been saved from demolition on more than one occasion. One of the proprietors was a Mr Len Hall, who at the time, was also the proprietor of the Café at the Stawell Drive- In Theatre where he served T-Bone steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs and fish & chips to the theatre goers.
It was reported in the Stawell Times and Pleasant Creek Chronicle on Saturday March 5th 1960 that a sign had been erected at Winston Lodge to mark the opening of Stawell’s first Motel. Some small Motel units had been constructed on the Eastern side of Winston Lodge to cater for the travelling public and also for the truckies who had stopped for a meal and a comfortable bed.
Even though the name ‘Winston Lodge’ disappeared from the front of the building in 2020 when renovations took place, it will always be referred to locally as ‘Winston Lodge.’

Physical description

Two Black and White Photographs One building Lodge. One with Atlantic Petrol Pumps Outside.