Geoff Clark ordered a beer and got a hotel BANKRUPT former Aboriginal leader Geoff Clark claims he was only trying to order a beer when he bid $1.25 million for Warrnambool's Caledonian Hotel. "I certainly don't have the capacity or the ability to finance anything like that," Mr Clark told his local newspaper, the Warrnambool Standard. He said that after returning from the funeral of a young Aborigine on Friday afternoon, he decided to go for a beer and arrived at the auction just as the auctioneer was saying that if he didn't receive a bid, "we all may as well go inside for a beer," at which he put up his hand in agreement. Mr Clark did not explain how this was taken for a bid of $1.25m. The hotel was eventually knocked down to a bid of $1.3m but the deal fell through. "I was just walking down the street and I saw this crowd," he said. I thought it might have been a fundraiser for cancer or something. I wasn't even aware there was an auction on. This bloke was joking about coming inside for a beer and I thought, I'll be in that. Then, all of a sudden, I'm involved in all this controversy. Mr Clark has been bankrupt since 2009, with debts of at least $300,000 as a result of almost continuous legal actions over the past decade. He said he "wouldn't mind owning a pub in Warrnambool."