Nothing but the Pub

Listen up a bit, this is the story of a very decent pub.  I’m headed east from Tocumwal on the Murray and the rain catches me at Finley but by Corowa I’ve ridden through it and, dry but damn cold, begin heading north, hoping to camp under the bridge I know on Billabong Creek on the Urana Road. But at Walbundrie the pub’s open and the heavens are about to  so I pull in to thaw, drip dry and grab a warming glass of red.  Walbundrie and its pub used be known as Piney Range and this year it'll turn 170 years old.  Across the bar Adam and Lindy are dealing with the end-of-week mob and ‘of course it’s no problem’ to park Super Ten in under the cover of the veranda. I shed some layers and kick back. It’s humming, but not as busy as they’d expected – a  group of twelve had booked for lunch but not fronted (or cancelled) so, with Lindy and her offsider sister, Joanne, who’s come up to help out, handling the drinkers, Adam’s got time to talk and with no more riding t...

  The Wellshot Hotel Ilfracombe Qld           In 1954 the boss of the Qld A.W.U. was interviewed about the roots of unionism in the Sunshine state:  “The Labor Movement in Queensland as we know it-…., was born in the pastoral … In 1886, at Wellshot station … industrial trouble arose at shearing time because shearers would not accept the … slave-like conditions of work proposed (and) went on strike, and the news of their action went like a bushfire throughout the outback (and) when no settlement was reached at Wellshot the men began to march on Blackall (where, with shearers from other gangs and stations) they decided to form the Shearers' Union.”            Eventually this Shearers’ Union grew into the backbone of the organization which became the ALP in Barcaldine in 1892. The place of Wellshot Station and Ilfracombe in our political and social history were cemented forever.        ...

(I wrote this for my column in Australian Motorcyclist Magazine a couple of years back. From being a damn fine pub then, it's only got better. If you're a traveller this is a good place to visit, if you're a publican it's a must visit  to see just how good a country pub can be!) When a publican recommends another pub to me, I listen. When three in a row tell me I simply must drop into a certain place, there’s no chance I’m going to miss it. Mark at Yeoval had told me make sure I visited, and then Theo at Mendooran had underlined that I must not head straight up to Coonabarabran but to detour to the Royal at Binnaway. After leaving Mendooran I dropped in at the stud farm of a part owner of Protectionist, winner of the Melbourne Cup in 2014 and John and Julie tell me I just have to catch up with Sean and Kylie at the Binnaway Royal So I head north out from their place and take the eastern turn for some very sweet riding into this town. The mid-morning s...