World’s Longest Pub Crawl
How far would you go for a cold one in a great place?
What Pam didn’t mention in our last post is that before reaching Undara, we stopped to refuel in “The Lynd”. It was basically just a truck stop where four major outback roads intercept each other. When paying for our petrol we noticed the roadhouse (Desert Oasis Roadhouse) was selling a book called “Australian Bush Pubs”, a compendium of significant pubs in Austalia’s historical and remote places. It turns out that this place too was one of those notable pubs, and in fact the smallest one in Australia, called The Oasis. This was our second time happening upon the book since Birdsville, where we were almost persuaded to buy it – So this time we ponied up $45 for a copy. We had to press on to Undara that day, but vowed to double back for a beer and a picture.
We stayed in Undara for 2 nights, where in addition to exploring the lava tubes, we plotted the following pub crawl: We would detour from our original route to the coast by about 200km to hit three places highlighted in the book. Pam was skeptical, to say the least.
After packing up camp at Undara and doing the Kalkani crater walk, we drove nearly 70kms in the wrong direction to arrive at the Einasleigh Hotel around noon.
It was previously a railway stop between Charters Corners and Townsville, but that train only runs once or twice weekly now. It’s a big old pub with rooms to let on the second level across the road from the Burdekin river. When we rocked up to the bar there was another couple inside who left soon after, and we then had the place and a rather chatty barman to ourselves. The bartender was a young man studying to become a sparky in Townsville who was taking some time away to help his father, who had recently purchased the place and were restoring it… Apparently the previous owner had left it to fall apart over his long tenure. That day they served only pre-packaged pies because he was expecting the power to go out at any moment (He’d been told it would be shut off anytime between 10am and 2pm for maintenance). We had our pies, wrote down his many recommendations, got a picture with him and moved on.
Next we would drive south, returning to the tiny Oasis pub for a couple cans of XXXX (Four Ex, the equivalent of Coors light here in Australia) and a selfie in their shady outdoor patio area. However, the staff here were more interested in helping others refill their vehicles, so we moved on.
About 250kms later we arrived at our campsite for the night, one of only four spots available in Dalrymple National Park, along Fletcher creek. Listed as 4WD access only, the sites were secluded, and each had their own access to the creek and were well separated. With absolutely no amenities available, this was our most remote site to date.
We took our time the next morning, because nobody needs to get to a pub first thing in the morning. Our next targets were the Mingela Hotel (in Mingela) and the Imperial Hotel in Ravenswood. The fastest way to and from Ravenswood is actually through Mingela, so we planned to pass through it at first, grab a BEvERage and lunch in Ravenswood about 90km away, and then a drink there on the return trip (back up the road about 50km, before continuing on to our destination in Townsville, roughly 160km away).
After passing through Mingela (with a promise to return), we rolled into Ravenswood, a sleepy little hub previously known as Top Camp. Ravenswood was once a booming mining town with several thousand residents and over 40 hotels, although these days the mining operation is slowing, there are only a few remaining hotels, and the town is trying to shift its focus to tourism. Drifting down the main drag, we were gobsmacked by the Railway Hotel before we could even locate our intended stop – The Imperial. The Railway Hotel looked like a well preserved and brightly coloured historic old hotel, and perhaps most interestingly was surrounded by classic cars including lots of great examples of American muscle. We couldn’t pass it up!
A two-storey place with a wrap-around veranda, we went inside and found a great bar with a few other passersby and a barman who we quickly learned was the owner of the place. Originally from Ballarat in Victoria, he was a middle-aged man whose primary business was importing cars from the USA for well-to-do Australians. He spun many great stories and told us to have a look around after lunch. We did, and found a few vintage bowsers (gas pumps), and several classic motorcycles and scooters. Outside, we found Corvettes, Mustangs, Pickup trucks and some Aussie classics too. This place was a hoot! However, the piece-de-resistance was his daily driver, which I had to chat about with him. It was a modern Ford F-350 Superduty single-cab truck mated to an F-350 dual-cab for 3 rows of seats, positioned over massive tyres, capable of carrying 900L of diesel, with about a million running lights. The most striking thing about it was that he managed to get it engineered (certified as road legal).
From there we only had to go another two blocks down the main street to find The Imperial Hotel. It was another great example of Hotel construction from the late 1800s, though a little worse for wear. Inside, the bar was even more ornate than at the Railway, though the whole place smelled of cigarette smoke that must have lingered since the place was built. Pam and I pulled up stools at the bar and ordered a couple beers. The server was a Norwegian backpacker and happy to chat. She’d been there a month and planned to spend another before seeing more of Australia and continuing on to South America when her tourist visa expires. We got the mandatory pictures of Pam and I with beers, and the Jeep out front of the place and then began making our way back toward Mingela.
Mingela isn’t much nowadays other than a rest stop along the Savannah Way. The Hotel had burned to the ground in the early 1900s but hadn’t lost its liquor license, and the locals were too impatient to rebuild it, so with council’s agreement, they put the local community centre on logs and rolled it down the street to the original hotel’s location. Boom! Problem solved! It wasn’t much to look at but the owners were friendly, and our plan worked out, because the hotel happened to have a bunch of rowdy guests this time around. The Kings Coast rugby club had arrived before us, and made it a lively visit while en route to a tournament back in Hughenden (at the end of the dinosaur trail). This clearly wasn’t their first drink. They were loud but friendly, brought an Aussie soundtrack with them and often sang along, and the team’s newest rookie was sporting a crown and a robe over nothing more than a Speedo. We also noticed several coolers packed at the front of their bus. They welcomed us in and made a spot for us at the bar. We chatted with their captain and a handful of others, and noted their recommendations for the area, and music, before their bus drove off with the entire team shouting the words to John Williams’ “Home Among The Gumtree’s” (check out our Instagram for a video). With the place quiet again we chatted with the owner and got a picture behind the bar before hitting the road ourselves. At this point Pam disclosed to me that she no longer questioned purchasing the book or going so far off course, and we were pretty pleased with having tagged four of the 50 locations highlighted in our new book in just two days. (Pam here: two pint Pam is pretty generous of spirit)
From there it was on to Townsville and the Coral Lodge, where we arrived around 5pm. It was positively heartwarming to see the ocean again as we navigated through the bustling city’s centre. After unpacking we went out to dinner at Malt, a restaurant attached to the city’s brewery, and on to The Taphouse, an outdoor courtyard with a great vibe at night and several craft beers on tap. These definitely weren’t in the book but it was a great conclusion to the first outback chapter of our holiday.
MVP: Australian Bush Pubs, by Craig Lewis & Cathy Savage. It caused us to change course dramatically, but we had a blast doing so, and look forward to covering the rest of the included recommendations. Scanning its pages we’ve noticed a couple places we’ve already missed on this adventure: The Prairie Hotel was apparently only 40km west of Hughenden, which we passed recently, and the Silverton Hotel, not far from one of our early stops in Broken Hill. They’ve been added to the Next Time list!
So, Where Exactly Is This?
Here’s a screenshot of this leg of the journey from WikiCamps! The red is what we’ve already covered, and the green is what was featured in the post you just read. You can also follow us live at this link – our satellite device pings our shared map frequently.
