The Gowing Family Legacy
The Gowing name has been synonymous with good food, fine art, horse racing and cars in Australia since the 1970s.
Dennis Gowing arrived in Australia as a cockney orphan — one of the original ’10 pound Poms’ — and built a remarkable fortune across the car, television, art, horse racing and restaurant industries. A man of outsized ambition, he once bought more TV advertising than any person before or since.
His vehicle for that reach was New Faces — the Australian talent show that preceded the British series of the same name. It began in 1963 as Kevin Dennis Auditions, sponsored by his own Kevin Dennis Motors and airing on Saturday mornings on GTV-9 Melbourne. The show evolved into Kevin Dennis New Faces and eventually the simply-titled New Faces, graduating to Sunday night prime time.
Restaurants
A colourful Melbourne entrepreneur, Dennis’s achievements ranged from the dining room to the racetrack. He owned What A Nuisance, winner of the 1985 Melbourne Cup, and created two of Melbourne’s most celebrated fine dining establishments — Jacksons in Toorak (1977–1984) and Gowings Restaurant (1984–1990), which earned 2.5 Chef’s Hats from The Age Good Food Guide and a place among critic Stephen Downes’ 50 Best Restaurants in Australia.
The critics agreed:
“The food was good, the wine list impressive, the waiters excellent — and Gowings was a great place for a party.” — Rita Erlich, Melbourne By Menu
Changing Times
Aware of the changing market, and in remission from bladder cancer diagnosed in 1988, Dennis made one final bold move — purchasing the old Grace Darling Hotel, the birthplace of the Collingwood Football Club. At just 24, Sam stepped up as licensee of this iconic bluestone pub in the heartland of Collingwood.
When the Pies won the Grand Final in 1990, it felt like a sign. A new era had begun for one of Melbourne’s most historic landmarks.
Dennis Gowing passed away in December 1991 after a long battle with cancer. For the next seven years, Samantha and her brother Chris carried the legacy forward, jointly owning and operating the Grace Darling and building a reputation that drew wide industry recognition.
Together, Sam and Chris transformed the Grace Darling into one of Melbourne’s most celebrated culinary and entertainment destinations — a place where fine food and vintage wines shared space with original works by Clifton Pugh and Tim Storrier.
Over eight years of continuous investment and improvement, the siblings built something genuinely singular. The Grace Darling became home to Melbourne’s first ever council-approved outdoor dining precinct — a landmark achievement at the time — alongside a first-floor reception space accommodating up to 120 guests, creating a multi-layered dining emporium that could shift effortlessly from neighbourhood local to grand occasion venue.
Then there was The Cellar. Tucked beneath the bluestone foundations, this intimate private dining room hosted parties of up to twelve — guests given full access to the cellar stock and the run of the adjacent rooms amongst the kegs. It was atmospheric, convivial, and historically charged: for it was in this very cellar that the inaugural committee meeting of the Collingwood Football Club was held in 1892, at which the decision was made to form a club to play in the new VFL. History, quite literally, underfoot.
The live music matched the ambition. The Grace Darling stage became a proving ground for some of Australia’s finest talent — Vika & Linda Bull, Colin Hay, The Waifs, Stephen Cummings, Nick Barker, Ross Hannaford (the legendary Daddy Cool guitarist), John McAll, Doug de Vries, Dan Warner, Tracy Kingman, the late, great Dion Hirini, and a one-night-only appearance from Relax With Max that nobody forgot in a hurry.
The accolades followed: 3AW’s Pub of the Year, Best Hotel Dining Room, and a Chef’s Hat from The Age Good Food Guide.
After the sale, Chris returned to the car industry and remains one of Victoria’s most respected salesmen to this day.
In an era before cleanskins and cellar doors, the Gowings did what great restaurateurs do — they called in a favour. Diamond Valley Vineyards became their winemaking partner, producing a signature range worthy of the house. For the label, they chose Tim Storrier’s haunting Natura Morta — The Burning of the Gifts. Fitting, for a place that never did anything by halves.
