All dressed up and nowhere to go: Colac's young people frustrated with limited nightlife

A lack of nightlife in Colac has left young locals forking out hundreds of dollars on weekends away in Geelong and Melbourne.

“All of my friends and some older people that I have talked to think that Colac just has nothing for younger people anymore,” said 22-year-old Chloe Grech. 

Before Covid, Colac locals could go to Piano Bar until 1am and Ms Scarlet (formerly HUSH) until 3am. Both venues reopened after lockdowns but have since closed, with the latter only used now for private functions.

Other former venues at The Bar’s current address - Sketa’s Bar, which closed in 2024, and its predecessor The Place to Be, which shut before Covid - also closed at 1am.

Colac has its share of pubs and restaurants, but Grech said the city’s only late-night venue, The Bar, which recently changed its closing time to midnight, attracted a less youthful crowd.

“The young adults in Colac don’t really have anywhere specifically for us to connect with each other and have a fun night out. I wish Colac had more nightlife and events.

“You hear stories about what the Colac nightlife used to be like and it would be great for today’s younger generation to also get to experience that.”

Travel to a larger city in search of bars and clubs and the costs soon start to mount up - transport, accommodation, food, drinks.

A major accommodation search engine had the starting price for a room in Geelong on Saturday night (September 20) at $120. 

Joel Bellchambers, 22, has all but given up on Colac. “I never go out in Colac. I’ve stopped because there’s little to nothing in Colac anymore, other than [Colac] Tenpin Bowl,” he said.

Others point to the decline in venues as the biggest blow. One 22-year-old man, who asked not be named, said: “We only have one place and that’s The Bar. The closure of Ms Scarlet had a big effect on the nightlife here in Colac.”

Venue owners acknowledge the town’s challenges. Luke Shalley, who runs Colac Tenpin Bowl, which offers Colac patrons a place to go until 11pm on Friday and Saturday nights, said Colac’s “lack of options that are open late or have different atmospheres makes it less appealing to go out”.

Kris Seabert owns The Bar, which opened last November. He said he had pitched the venue to an older crowd, although younger people do come for karaoke and live music. 

“From the start it was 30-plus,” he told The Brolga. “You have a lot less issues with drugs, with drunkenness, all that sort of stuff. Focusing on stamping out drugs has been a big thing - I’ve seen what that can do on a night out.”

Seabert also pointed to Colac’s lack of taxis in peak times, saying it can take up to an hour to get a taxi at 9pm. 

“Once it gets to the nights where there’s potentially 200–300 people out and there’s one taxi going around, it’s going to be a disaster.”

In a sliver of hope for the young and restless, the Union Club Hotel, once a popular spot for a night out with a 1am closing time, is set to reopen in October.

The bar and bistro have been closed for more than a year, undergoing an exterior paint job and full renovation that includes “a new kitchen, refreshed bar and bistro spaces, and outdoor entertainment areas”.

Both Shalley and Seabert believe collaboration with new venues will be key to rebuilding a nightlife scene in Colac.

“If we don’t see each other as competition, but more as a network, hopefully it does come back to that situation where people think, we’ll start at The Bar, then we’ll go up to the Union for a bit,” Seabert said.

Shalley said if locals wanted more nightlife, it was incumbent on locals to support new venues “that are trying to give more options and make it more attractive to go out in Colac”.

Header image: Piano Bar Colac (now closed)