The end of an era .....      As Keva and Lesley's family grew and moved away to pursue other careers, it had become apparent to them that the time had come to move on themselves. To enable that move, the business was put on the market in the early 2000s. A sale was brokered in the first twelve months but unfortunately fell through within a fortnight of handover.      That sale would have seen the business transfered to a young family returning to Victoria to be nearer grandparents and could well have begun a new era. Sadly it wasn't to be and the business languished on the market for another twelve years. Agents came and went and an occasional expression of interest was received from a potential buyer and many thousands of dollars spent on promotion of the business and the community for no return.      Towards the end of 2015, Keva and Lesley decided to force the issue. A letter was written to the local paper advising the community that unless a buyer could be found, they would be forced to close the business at the end of the year.      Westpac exacerbated the situation by announcing that they would be closing all Australian Instores early in 2016, deciding to pass all agency transactions over to Australia Post. An agreement was reached with Westpac to continue the Instore to the end of January 2016.

The unique mudbrick home built by Keva in the late 1970s to early 1980s was but on the market in September 2015 and had sold by Christmas to a retiring couple from near Melbourne. Handover was put in place for early February, Keva and Lesley's new home in Epsom secured earlier in 2015.      An offer was received from the Board of Sea Lake Development to acquire the newspapers and Tattersalls agency but other interested parties were still coming forward as 2016 began causing inevitable delays for no outcome!      Tattersalls put a stumbling block in the way deeming that SLD would have to reach and maintain ridiculous figures to acquire the agency and inspite of Keva and Lesley spending many thousands of dollars to upgrade the Tattersalls shopfittings to current requirements, it appeared that SLD would not be able to transfer those fittings across Best Street. Again Keva had to go into battle! First it had been the Save Sea Lake Hospital campaign in 2009, then Save Sea Lake Westpac Instore in 2012 and now Save Sea Lake's Tattersalls Agency in 2016.      With the assistance and fire-power of parliamentarians and the Lotteries Association of Victoria, Keva was able to force Tattersalls to rethink their requirements of SLD and the sale of the newspapers and Tattersalls Agency was negotiated.      In the meantime, a clearing sale of all other stock was underway, some taken by other Sea Lake businesses. Keva and Lesley's move took place in early February but due to delays and negotiations, Keva was forced to travel back each week to conduct the business in it's twilight days. Debbie and Lorelle continued to assist when Keva was unable to attend.      The to-ing and fro-ing continued until September for Keva, tidying up all the loose ends.      An approach had been made by a representative of the Hospital Op-shop to lease the premises after the closure of the building but at the "thirteenth hour", a mystery buyer for the building appeared out of nowhere! As no contract had been signed with the Hospital Ladies, a price was negotiated with the buyer and the sale completed.      All that remained was to strip the shop of all remaining fixtures and fittings and a team of locals completed that task in rapid time. Remaining stock was boxed up and with Keva, Lesley and the family Vauxhall and trailer loaded, the final journey to their new home in Epsom was completed.      And so came the end of the era of the Stubbs and Lloyd business interests in Sea Lake, a presence that had lasted for almost 117 years!      Reminisce now, if you will, at what the last days of Stubbs/Lloyds' Newsagency had provided for the many loyal customers of Sea Lake and District .....

Tattersalls upgrade 2015