Hundreds of local and visiting patrons dropped in to the Dederang Hotel on Sunday, 7 December, to celebrate its official reopening and remodeling, under new owners Dean Murphy and Shane Jacobson.

Mr Murphy, who was raised in the Kiewa Valley "only 15-minutes from the pub", said he wanted to make sure the business continues on for years to come.

"I've been going to the pub for dinner with my family since I was a little kid," he said.

"It's such a key aspect of the community.

"I've been living and working in Melbourne for 30-plus years, but I always planned to return to the valley.

"My wife and I bought a property in the area and return as often as we can.

"We knew the Dederang Hotel was for sale and 12 months later, we heard they'd still not found the right owner.

"I mentioned to my wife, we might buy the pub, if 12 months on it was still available.

"From my work in the film industry, I'm good mates with Shane Jacobson, so I told him the story of the Dederang Hotel.

"We talked for about 20 minutes; then we said let's do it.

"Shane was committed and on board before he even saw it."

The pair drove up together in November 2024, to view the venue in person.

"Shane was blown away with the landscape of the area: he couldn't get over how varied it is in the North East," Mr Murphy said.

"When we got here, he said it was incredible and "wow, what a pub!

"We stayed open while we renovated, because we knew our patrons couldn't just walk to the next pub down the road, they had to get into cars to drive there; it was just too far away."

Mr Murphy said the renovation lasted six months and the pub only had to close completely when the roof needed to be brought down.

The huge undertaking involved building rewiring, new installations and updates to a number of rooms to bring the pub up to code.

"We used as many local tradesmen as we could, people out of Albury/Wodonga, materials from Beechworth and so on," Mr Murphy said.

"The folks at Mitre 10 in Myrtleford were so helpful: we could go to them at any time and say, 'we need X, Y and Z' and they helped us out every time.

"The pub's so important to the community; the bowls, footy, tennis and cricket clubs all meet here and in the small time we've had it, we've already had a wedding and wake at the pub.

"For us it was really about making sure we kept what makes the pub so great.

"I was talking to a lady about the differences between city and country pubs the other day.

"When you’re in a city pub, you sit down with six others for dinner and that’s all you socialise with, but in a country pub, you can walk in and make your way around the whole time and catch up with someone you know.

"As if to prove my point, she watched the next person to walk in do this very thing."

The Dederang Hotel is located at 4326 Kiewa Valley Highway.