Visiting the Outback can be thirsty work, as you roam a region where there are endless sunny days. Why not stop for a cool drink and soak up some unique Outback hospitality?


Here are just a few of the region's unique pubs, full of charm and colourful characters.

Royal Mail Hotel

Located just inside the Dingo Fence, this is the only hotel in Australia that you'll need to open a gate to reach. That is, if you're entering Queensland from New South Wales. The Royal Mail Hotel is in Hungerford which boasts a population of 10 and lies about 1,000km west of Brisbane and 200km from Cunnamulla. Built in 1873, the heritage-listed building is made of corrugated iron and cypress pine. A Cobb and Co stopover, travellers would sink a beer on the verandah as they looked at the kangaroos and emus. You can do the same today. There are plenty of rooms for overnight stays as well as a bunk house which sleeps 15.

For more information:
Mark & Sheree
Tel +61 7 4655 4093

Eulo Queen Hotel

Named after Isobel Robinson, who was known as the Queen of Eulo, this hotel sits between the Yowah and Duck Creek opal fields, a thriving mining area in times past. Its fiery namesake, who came to Australia in the late 1870s, became known as an outstanding horsewoman, shot and gambler. She was said to have one of the finest opal collections in the world, incredible beauty and three husbands. Today the Eulo Queen is the perfect rest stop offering good country atmosphere and delicious meals. There is both budget and five-star accommodation available.

For more information:
Ken & Marlene Manktelow
Tel +61 7 4655 4867

Walkabout Creek Hotel

Featured in all three Crocodile Dundee movies, this large breezy pub sits on the Matilda Highway, 108km south of Cloncurry. It may be a hundred years old but it's full of modern movie history, with photographs, props and memorabilia from Paul Hogan's popular movies. There's even a crocodile - but stuffed. Enjoy a Dundee Burger on the wide verandah overlooking distant plains. Publican Paul Collins may share a yarn with you but not the secret recipe. There is motel accommodation as well as caravan and camping areas.

For more information:
Paul Collins
Tel +61 7 4746 8424

Hotel Corones

The Raffles of the West, as it became known, was created in the late 1920s by Greek immigrant Charalambos Coroneos who arrived in Australia in 1907. He started his new life with a new name, Harry Corones, and went to live in Charleville two years later. The palatial hotel he built occupies an entire block in the town's centre. For an outlay of 500,000 pounds and five years work, he constructed sweeping staircases, ornate hand-crafted plaster ceilings and reputedly the largest bar in the southern hemisphere. There were even double rooms with private facilities, unheard of in country pubs in those days. Hotel Corones became the social hub of this sheep station area.

Harry was fascinated by flying and consequently visitors included English aviatrix Amy Johnson and other aviators. Qantas started its first regular flights between Charleville and Cloncurry and early Qantas meetings were held here. Other famous visitors over the years have included rock and roll singer Johnny O'Keefe, actor Bryan Brown, former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and English singer Gracie Fields. With the original colonial furniture still in place, Hotel Corones is as elegant and opulent as it was in times past. Karl Aschhoff will give you a fascinating two-hour tour, between March and October, complete with sensational stories and scrumptious scones. His trip into history is truly outstanding.

For more information:
Karl Aschhoff or Graham Clark
Tel +61 7 4654 1022

Blue Heeler Hotel

Kynuna may be small, with a population around 19, but you'll be sure of a big welcome at the must-see Blue Heeler Hotel. It's worth the three and a half hour drive from Mount Isa if just to admire the walls covered with graffiti and signatures from all over Australia. Soak up a cold beer as you soak up the local history. It was here that bush poet Banjo Paterson brokered a truce between land owners and sheep shearers in 1895, with champagne passed out through the hotel's guillotine window as a gesture of goodwill. Why not visit during the Kynuna Surf Festival, held in aid of the Royal flying Doctor Service. Surf? There's heaps of sand in the area but no sea. "But there's lots of froth on the beer," laughs hotel owner Barbara Matthews.

Stay in the motel or hotel accommodation. There is also a camping and caravan park.

For more information:
Barbara Matthews
Tel +61 7 4746 8650

Middleton Hotel

This charismatic pub is the only surviving Cobb and Co changing station between Winton and Boulia. Middleton is well off the beaten track, situated 170 kilometres west of Winton on the sealed Min Min Byway. The only other buildings in this tiny settlement are a rundown town hall and the Hilton Hotel, a bower shed. The pub offers cold beer, food, fuel and friendly service. There is air-conditioned accommodation and a nearby camping area. Who knows, you may spot the mysterious but elusive Min Min light. Named after the old Min Min Hotel, the first documented sighting was in 1912 , the light spotted by a horserider travelling between Boulia and Winton at 2am. The light hovers and does not travel. Explanations range from fire flies to Aboriginal spirits and atmospheric forces including gas escaping from bores.

For more information:
Karen Robinson
Tel +61 7 4657 3980

Winton Hotel

Amazing memorabilia adorns the bar of the Winton Hotel. Saddle and pack bags hang from the ceiling, photos dating back decades adorn the walls and old tools and shearing gear are everywhere. This mini-museum also offers cold beer, hearty meal and comfortable bed for the night. Dating back to 1899, this old-style pub is an ideal spot for a yarn with the locals and owners Kevin and Jo Fawcett. Historic it may be but it boasts modern facilities - a drive-through bottle shop, affordable accommodation and eight of the latest pokie machines.

For more information:
Kevin & Jo Fawcett
Tel +61 7 4657 1519

Noccundra Hotel

This heritage-listed hotel was built in 1882 from sandstone that was quarried locally. A border post for police patrols, Noccundra was also a stop for drovers and camel trains. Today the population is just four. Check out photographs from the district's past in the bar and learn more from present owners John and Jill McNamara. Cabin-style accommodation is available and so are powered van sites. You can camp at the nearby waterhole and the fishing's good there too.

For more information:
John & Jill McNamara
Tel +61 7 4655 4317

North Gregory Hotel

Have a toast to bush poet Banjo Paterson at the hotel where Australia's unofficial national anthem, Waltzing Matilda, was first performed, in 1895. The song's chorus and the swagman's image have been sandblasted into the hotel's glass doors by renowned sculptor Daphne Mayo. This is actually the fourth incarnation of the Winton hotel. The previous three, on the same site, were all destroyed by fire. The hotel has another claim to fame. Engine trouble forced Lyndon B. Johnson (before he was US President) to overnight here when the Flying Fortress plane in which he was travelling landed on nearby Carisbrooke Station in 1942. The North Gregory Hotel features self-contained rooms and is run by David and Prue Strang.

For more information:
David and Prue Strang
Tel +61 7 4657 1375

Birdsville Hotel

If you visit during the Birdsville Races in September, there'll be 6,500 in town. The rest of the year there's only 90 folk and you may have a chance to chat with hotel owners Kym and Jo Fort. Dating back to 1884, this hotel is a Birdsville icon, out in Channel Country with the Simpson Desert on one side and Sturt's Stony Desert on the other. There's plenty of race memorabilia to check out and the food's pretty good too, with an a la carte menu featuring emu, camel and goat. There are 18 full self-contained rooms.

For more information:
Kym & Jo Fort
Tel +61 7 4656 3244

The Royal Hotel

This is the furthest pub - and town - from the sea in Australia. If you've made it this far, you deserve a drink and make that a cold one. Eromanga, after all, means hot, dusty plain. John and Georgina Walker run this hotel together with son Scott. The building may be over a hundred years old and once a Cobb and Co Staging post but the rooms now provide air-conditioned comfort.

For more information:
John & Georgina Walker
Tel +61 7 4656 4837

Gidgee Inn

Named after the outback tree, this wonderful complex blends the new with the old and the exotic with the everyday. The five-year old building is made with recycled timber which is featured within its rammed earth walls. Owned by the Pearson family, there are 40 motel rooms and the restaurant can seat up to a hundred. You can admire the surrounding bush, landscaped with native gums, gidyeas and vibrant exotic bougainvilleas, from the sweeping verandahs.

For more information:
Russell Pearson
Tel +61 7 4742 1599

Bulloo River Hotel Motel

The Bulloo River flows through the heart of a shire that covers a staggering 73,500 square kilometres and is home to just 240 people, at Thargomindah. The Bulloo River Hotel Motel is located in this small Outback town on the edge of Queensland's Channel Country. Proprietors Duck and Daisy can provide you with a cold beer on a hot day and air conditioned comfort in one of their six motel units. The area boasts prolific birdlife on the scenic river and nearby lakes.

For more information:
Duck and Daisy
Tel +61 7 4655 3125

Cameron Corner

Former Melbourne long-distance truck driver Bill Mitchell was in search of a different lifestyle and he's found it here. Together with nephew Mark Spence, he now owns the shop and licensed bar at this remote outpost, "in the far bottom left-hand corner of Queensland". Accommodation for up to 25 is available here, the area where three States - New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland - meet. This is corner country, named after a peg used here by surveyor John Cameron in 1880. Today you'll see a white post marking the spot in this red sandhill country. Stroll just 200m to see it and then come back for a cold beer and a cool break at this typical Outback pub. "Depending on which direction you're headed, we're the last exit from or the first entry point to Queensland," says Bill, saying the two main beers on offer are, naturally, Victorian and Queensland brands - VB and Fourex Gold.

For more information:
Bill Mitchell
Tel +61 8 8091 3872