OUTBACK VALUE

"Just call me Stretch," says the tall guy in the ancient Akubra hat. For sure his mother never named him that, but you can see why his mates have. As elongated as his speech, Stretch puts out a work-roughened hand. "Welcome to Tibooburra," he drawls, "What'llya have?"

 So what do you do in the hottest and most isolated town in NSW? You do the only sensible thing and go to the pub of course. And when that pub is one of just two in the town, the only ones for several hundred kilometres in any direction, you'd better believe that it is well loved.

Located on the back road to anywhere 400 kilometres BEYOND Bourke this place is none too cool – VB signs, white plastic chairs on the peppercorn tree shaded veranda, and a great front row view of the passing parade of dusty utes and 4WDs.

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This article continues with details of the Family Hotel at Tibooburra, some of the history and what it is like to live so far away from – well – anywhere.

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(finishes…)

A few decades later, the town had a brief fling with fame with the discovery of gold in 1881. A thousand miners arrived, and because of them a post office, school and hospital were built. The hotel began in that era too, of course, and  over the years various artists, including Clifton Pugh, Russell Drysdale and Rick Amor, visited this distant corner of the state and added their sometimes raunchy sketches to the walls around the bar. It's almost worth the trip just to see them. 

The road to Tibooburra, whichever way you come at it, is a long, dry, dusty one. There are ‘roos and wombats, saltbush and spinifex and hundreds of kilometres of red dirt. But under the peppercorn trees, the beer is waiting, and you can bet that Jenny is just putting something delicious in the oven for dinner, and Peter and Liz have dusted off the welcome mat. 

And you can be absolutely certain that Stretch is more than ready to share a coldie and a yarn.

©Sally Hammond 2006

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2006

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled as guests of Dakota National Air)

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