Sailors Grave docks at Dunetown

Article

Published: 14 August 2025

Video Transcript

Sailors Grave docks at Dunetown

Vision: View of the ocean and coastline and the Sailors Grave Brewing site. View of Sailors Grave Brewing Dunetown signage.

Gab Moore - Sailors Grave Brewing

Dunetown is the name of this place. We got the name Sailors Grave and Dunetown from down Cape Conran where there’s a little cove called Sailors Grave and there was a little sea shanty village there and there used to be a little pub set up in the dunes. And by pub we mean just a table and a keg. And so yeah we really wanted Dunetown and Sailors Grave to embody that spirit of freedom.

Vision: View of Gab working in the bar, people in the bar area enjoying the beers. Views from above of dunes and surf at Marlo. View of Chris working in the brewery.

Chris Moore - Sailors Grave Brewing

We had this idea brewing for a long time until the Economic Recovery Grants appeared and made it possible.

Vision: Chris working in the brewery area. View of the various names of beers on the taps.

We always have done a lot of beers that are based on the place we live. Everything has to be very drinkable but it has to somehow talk about the people or the landscape or the produce of the area.

Vision: View of the outside seating area. Close-up view of the plants and fish artwork. View of pelicans waiting at the Marlo pier for fish scraps.

Gab Moore

In every aspect it’s about connecting to the people and the place in a really deep way.

Vision: Montage of photos of Chris with Bruce Pascoe, Bruce Pascoe in a field.

Chris Moore

We collaborated with Uncle Bruce Pascoe on Dark Emu beer, which uses Kangaroo Grass from Bruce’s farm near Mallacoota. We really wanted that to be a way to use beer to gently talk about things that people might not be exposed to.

Vision: Picture of Bruce Pascoe with cover of his book “Dark Emu”. View of people outside the bar area, view of people inside the bar. View of the various names of beers on the taps. View of a beer being poured. View of staff member pouring beer.

Gab Moore

We opened just in time for that summer trade and people actually found us. I think if you do something good you can do it anywhere and people will find you.

Vision: View of staff member writing the menu on the blackboard. View of food and people enjoying it outside.

Chris Moore

We want more local attractions, we want the place to grow, and we want to support whoever else wants to have a go and set up something that makes people want to come down to this area.

We’ve always felt we’re an advocate for the region in a tourism sense, the picture’s more complete now that Dunetown’s built, and we’re actually a destination, so we can capitalise on that for the region.

Vision: View of the Sailors Grave Brewing site and aerial view of ocean and coastline.

Text: Delivering for Rural & Regional Victoria - Victoria State Government. Authorised by Victorian Government, 1 Treasury Place, Melbourne.

Author: Regional Development Victoria

Sailors Grave is brewing up a storm in Dunetown with its farmhouse-style brewery making visitors and locals pour in.

For Sailors Grave Brewery founders Chris and Gab Moore, it’s most certainly a case of ‘from little things, big things grow’.

Gab explains that the inspiration for their destination brewery on Victoria’s far eastern coast comes from a small cove named Sailors Grave at nearby Cape Conran, and a long gone “little sea shanty village” there.

“There used to be a little pub set up in the dunes, and by pub we mean just a table and a keg. But that was definitely the inspiration for us… we really wanted Dunetown and Sailors Grave to embody that spirit of freedom,” she says.

The Moores, who grew up in the area but spent many years living and working elsewhere, returned to open Sailors Grave Brewing in 2016 in an old Orbost butter factory building.

But their dream was always to build and run a “farmhouse-style brewery” to not only greatly expand their beer production capabilities, but also to feature a cellar-door experience serving food and a wide range of their unique, hand-crafted beers.

This dream became a reality last summer with the opening of Dunetown, situated just outside of Marlo, thanks to a $2.35 million investment under the Victorian Government's Local Economic Recovery Fund, which supports bushfire-affected areas of Victoria.

“We'd had this idea brewing for a long time, until the economic recovery grants appeared and made it possible. We couldn't have done this without the Local Economic Recovery fund, it was too big of a hill to climb on our own,” Chris explains.

And so far, Dunetown has already proved a hit with locals and visitors alike.

“We opened just in time for summer trade and people actually found us,” Gab says. “A lot of people were like; ‘Why are you putting a brewery down there in the middle of nowhere?’ But it’s not in the middle of nowhere for us, it’s the centre for us, and I think if you do something good, you can do it anywhere and people will find you.”

“It was a very busy summer and it’s done really well,” Chris adds, “We’ve grown our workforce probably double to about 12 to 14 people, and our long-term vision is to keep on growing that and hopefully grow that to more like 20 to 30 people.”

But it’s not just their own business that the Moores want to grow.

“What’s important to us is how we connect to the place and to the people… and hopefully feel like we’re creating a better place and a more connected place,” Chris says.

“We always saw this site, and this giant shed that we've got, as being open to other uses beside our own. We're already talking to other people wanting to start small pilot manufacturing projects within our site, and that's exactly what we wanted, we wanted to be a kind of a hub that enabled more things to happen.”

“We want it to be multifaceted and to attract visitors, businesses, young people, old people, everybody.”

And for the Moores, encouraging more local businesses will help make this happen.

“We want the place to grow, and we want to support whoever else wants to have a go and set up something that makes people want to come down to this area.”

Visit the Sailors Grave Brewery website.

Sailors Grave docks at Dunetown

View transcript

Video Transcript

Sailors Grave docks at Dunetown