Date: May 2004
Location: Western Downs, Queensland Australia
Exposed tools proclaimed the large sign attached to the outer wall of the public showers at the Nindigully Pub, right next to the open door!
It was one of a number of signs dotted throughout this comfortable old lady of the bush, the best of which was surely the message in the bathroom for guests staying in the hotel. The bathroom where you took the key in the door into the shower with you to ensure privacy. A system that works well most of the time.
"Please turn off the lights for two reasons.
1. Save electricity
2. Bugs like light... Frogs like bugs... Snakes like frogs...
Please close door after use and don't lock the key inside. Thankyou.
To explain the latter sentence. Privacy in the shower is ensured by taking the key from the outside lock into the shower with you and then returning it afterwards if you remember!
Nindigully is 45km south-east of St George in Western
Queensland on the road to Mungindi. It proudly acknowledges its role as the
location for the Hugh Jackman movie, Paperback Hero, but movies aside,
the building, the people and the site deserve fame anyway.
Sitting opposite the mighty Moonie River, this sprawling building bursts with character. It is gradually undergoing a transformation as current owner Stephen Burns gradually adds authentic timber weatherboard cladding to the outer walls, the width of which is rarely seen and had to specially milled. Inside, hessian lines the walls of the dining room and makes effective curtains in the accommodation area, while horse shoes make unusual and attractive holders for the fluffy towels.
This is not a place to stop for one beer and keep moving. The heart of the place has to be felt and experienced through the locals who call in for a drink from local properties, the travellers on their way through, many of whom have their own caravan or tent, and the staff who came for while and have stayed.
There is little at Nindigully except for a few houses and sheds, the community hall, showgrounds and the river. The school buses, one for the high school and the other for primary collect and despatch their charges here on their way to St George and Thallon respectively.
Ask any of the people there on this Wednesday in September and they will tell you there is always plenty happening at Nindigully, before going on to say it was a pity we weren't there on a Friday.
On this particular Wednesday there were several car loads of travellers on their way back from the Birdsville Races as well as others who were simply touring around the west, a busload of young students, predominantly female who did only call in for an hour or so, Wayne, a sign-writer and family friend who came to help and has stayed for more than four months, Phil, who's from down south and returns to the area for seasonal work and love of the pub.
Don't expect five-star service at the 'gully, but it will be more personal than you can expect anywhere else. Accommodation is $40 for the honeymoon suite, $20 a head in the twin rooms and $15 in the triple. There is also room known as Paddy's Room, named in memory of a local who called in one night for a packet of cigarettes but didn't survive the drive home. This is the room where patrons who are 'under the weather' can sleep off their festivities and continue on safely the next day.
The food is great as well, and as Wayne will tell you, they are famous for offering a good feed. During our visit the pub was still hoping to employ a new cook, although they did have help for the evening meals, which include inch thick steaks and lashing of salad and chips guaranteed to satisfy the hungriest of diners!
Breakfast and hot lunches are strictly a cook your own affair on the barbies in the beer garden until the new cook is employed, but only a fool would complain when the chook who laid the eggs comes to greet you and the bacon rasher is more of a steak.
The pub was established in 1864 as a Cobb and Co change-over station. Maps and photographs, newspaper clippings and other documents in the dining room and on the walls of the bar show the colourful history of the hotel. The Nindigully is believed to hold one of the oldest continual liquor licences in Queensland and to do all its owners credit the original building has changed little since it was first built, although history was almost lost earlier this year when the kitchen burnt down.
There are lots of other touches to the pub that are worth looking out for the collection of 140 Akubra hats on the wall, each donated by a local (including the police hat which is simply labelled 'pinched'), the spotlessly, clean toilets, the vast verandahs suffice to say the safest way to understand the pub is to visit yourself.
For bookings call :
Tel + 61 7 4625 9637
Fax + 61 7 4625 9679.
Leaving Nindigully is sad but you can't help smiling as the sign that welcomed you to town Free beer yesterday has a farewell message to deliver Free beer tomorrow!
For more information:
Toowoomba and Golden West Tourism Association
Tel +61 7 4632 1988
- By Adrienne Costin
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