Australian comedy icon Shane Jacobson and Dean Murphy bought a rural Victorian pub without visiting it first, and learned it was far tougher than expected.
One bold purchase decision nearly broke Shane Jacobson, and the story behind it is unfolding on a new TV show.
In rural Victoria. the Aussie comedy icon teamed up with longtime friend Dean Murphy to buy the Dederang Hotel. a move he admits became far more demanding than he ever imagined.. The “Oops!. I Bought A Pub” journey revisits the moment the idea took shape. right up to the real-world strain of renovating while trying to keep a pub running.. For Jacobson, the lesson was clear from the start: the hardest parts were not the ones he expected.
What made the decision especially risky was that it began with trust rather than travel.. Murphy first floated the concept through a work email, relying on a bond built through film and theatre projects.. Jacobson admits he had doubts early on. particularly because neither of them had visited the pub and Murphy doesn’t drink. yet the online pictures and the surrounding landscape quickly changed the conversation.
Insight: This is a reminder that “business intuition” often starts with emotion and familiarity, but the day-to-day reality is where plans are tested.
The couple also leaned heavily on the role the pub plays in a country town.. Jacobson describes Dederang as the kind of place where the pub is not just a venue. but a shared routine and a community meeting point.. In that setting, the pressure isn’t only financial or logistical.. It’s about taking over something locals already rely on, from life events to local sponsorships.
Still, renovating a pub is not the same as renovating a home.. Jacobson reflects that he has done the work before. yet managing a rebuild while maintaining operations proved to be uniquely exhausting.. He points to the practical strain of balancing construction demands with the expectations that keep a traditional country pub alive.
Insight: The story resonates because it challenges a common assumption that experience in one kind of project automatically transfers to another.
As the show traces their approach, Jacobson and Murphy try to respect the venue’s history while making improvements.. Their guiding principle is summed up in a simple idea: keep the character, enhance everything that needs fixing.. Even when changes are inevitable. Jacobson says their goal was to avoid losing the old-country charm that made the pub meaningful in the first place.
Beyond the workload, the most motivating part, Jacobson says, was the people.. He describes the rhythm of local life. where hard weeks in farming cultures make the pub a place to land. talk. and decompress.. In his view, keeping doors open for locals transforms the renovation from a task into something bigger.
Insight: In the end, stories like this matter because they show how local businesses carry social weight, and how “making things better” is often measured by the community’s trust.