Community
16 October, 2025
Farewell Spike
MORTLAKE Pharmacy owner Spike Pilcher has offered a heartfelt farewell to the community after announcing he had sold the pharmacy.
The changeover is set for October 30, seven years after Mr Pilcher joined the Mortlake community from Melbourne.
“I’d been living in Caulfield and working in St Vincent’s Hospital before I came to Mortlake,” he said.
“Mum owned the Mortlake Pharmacy and she still lived in Melbourne – the pharmacy manager left and she was having trouble finding another one, so she offered me the opportunity to manage it with the opportunity to gradually buy into the business.
“It was a great opportunity which I wouldn’t have been able to do at my age regularly, so myself and my now-wife thought it was a good decision.
“She’s from Woodend so she lived regionally previously – she didn’t want to be in Melbourne forever, so she thought it was a good opportunity to try a move.
“We didn’t know how long it would last but we did it and loved it.”
Mr Pilcher said moving to a rural community presented a daunting challenge, from a career and personal perspective, but he quickly found support from two long-serving staff members.
“It was a big learning curve but it was made a lot easier thanks to two excellent staff members – Lauren McLennan and Stacey Dridan – who had both been there over ten years,” he said.
“They were wonderful, and it would have been a lot harder without them because they really knew a lot of what was going on and what to do.
“Having mum as a sounding board also helped but it was probably more of an adjustment from a lifestyle perspective – going from a city to a country town.”
Mr Pilcher tried to immerse himself in the community when he arrived, joining a wide range of sporting clubs and organisations.
He said in doing so he had found a sense of community which he felt was so often lost in busier metropolitan areas.
“You can end up pretty lonely if you don’t get involved, particularly if you haven’t grown up somewhere,” he said.
“You have to throw yourself into stuff to meet people so that was my philosophy behind getting involved.
“It was great – I’ve massively enjoyed it, it’s different because you feel like you don’t get that in Melbourne because you don’t need to – there’s so much around you to do.
“I didn’t realise what a big deal sporting clubs and volunteering were – how much support there is in these communities such as through businesses.
“It’s been so much fun, and lovely to see a place where people support the endeavours of others.”
He and his wife, after having their first child, will now move back to be closer to family.
“It’ll be nice to spend a few months at home with my son,” Mr Pilcher said.
“I’ve loved this job and the people but you don’t get a heap of opportunities for time off – when you’re away, it’s still yours.”
Mr Pilcher said he will fondly remember the Mortlake community.
“I have genuinely loved it, and I didn’t know that I would,” he said.
“I was so nervous coming here – I wasn’t sure I could stick it out, but it has been amazing the way the community has embraced me and how much fun it has been.
“Every day there are so many customers who come in, you have a laugh and you actually get to know them – they care about you and you care about them.
“It has been lovely and the amount of people who I didn’t even think noticed me, who have come in and said they’re sorry I am leaving, has been absolutely wonderful.
“People made coming to work fun.”
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