Creators of Lorne venues The Arab and The Wild Colonial Club

The Arab was opened by brothers Graham, Robin, and Alastair Smith in 1956. Graham danced with the Borovansky Ballet. At the time of  creating the Arab, the Smith brothers weren’t very old.  They lived with their parents at Cinema Point, five miles from Lorne, in a solitary cottage looking out towards the lighthouse that had once belonged to the 20s – 30s gardening guru, Edna Walling.

The Smith brothers were charming.  Boyish, extroverted and charismatic.  Before they opened The Arab in 1956, Alistair had been a carpenter, Robin worked in a bank, and Graham was a principal dancer with the Munich Opera House.  “Graham was the visionary.  He put the magic into the building and what went on in there,” said Robin, 25 years later.  “Alistair provided the dynamism.  He was a perfectionist.  Sometimes he threw tantrums and did his block, which the customers loved.”  “Robin pulled the threads together, negotiated with the banks and the police.  He was the diplomat.  He did the late shift and worked the longest hours”, said Helen, his wife, who’d worked there, too. Helen Johnson was working at The Arab and married Robin and they had two children Lara and Darcy.

Smith brothers also created the Abomb restaurant at Mount Bulla Ski Resort. The Abominable (also known as the A-bomb or the Ab) at Mount Buller opened in 1964 as a licensed restaurant and late-night music venue. According to The Age, there were sometimes as many as 300 people dancing until 3 or 4am.  And what dances!  The Age article reported: The slop, the mashed potato, mod, nod, hitch-hiker, the swim, the frug and a dozen other indescribable dances are performed to the thumping beat of drum and guitar emanating from the inevitably hirsute group on the platform. The Age, 15 July 1966.

The Abominable, now known officially as the ABOM, evolved into a hotel as well as a restaurant and is still operating at Buller.  The Arab is now closed.

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