Toompine Pub - The Pub with No Town

With tyres re-inflated to highway pressures we set off in the direction of the South Western Hotel, aka, Toompine Pub which is also known as ‘The Pub without a Town’ given it is the only thing there!

South Western Hotel - Toompine Pub, QLD (pop: 2)

With the forecast wet weather closing in, we decided to stay the night.  As we were the only folks there we had our choice of the camping spots available.  There was a great one under cover, straight across from the showers and toilets and with a power outlet nearby that our host, ‘Rocket’, invited us to go ahead and plug into.  The cost of overnight camping at Toompine Hotel? - No Charge, Free, Gratis, $0.00!

Power, Water and Under Cover 'camp-site' across from the Toompine Pub

No sooner had we got ourselves set-up for the night than the promised rain arrived.  Instead of sitting within the confines of the caravan we went into the pub for a beer and a chat and to get Rocket’s signature in our bush pubs book.

Publican 'Rocket' with Heather after signing our book

The budget friendly cost of camping made it very easy to decide to have a pub meal that night.  We each had a T-Bone steak with salad and chips (fries).  Rocket threw a couple of prawns onto the plate as well for good measure.  After several disappointing pub meals thus far in our travels, this one certainly met and even exceeded expectations!

Huge T-bone steaks with a couple of large prawns
thrown in for good measure!

After our meal we returned to the van for the night and with full bellies it was not long after that we were both sound asleep!

With the caravan being undercover we did not hear the patter of rain on our roof through the night.  Next morning we rose to find that the water level around the pub had also risen.  Despite just 13 mm (~1/2 an inch in the old language) landing in the pub's rain gauge overnight, the rains had been far heavier upstream around Quilpie from whence we had escaped the day before (new readers please refer to previous blog posting).  Subsequently, the road from Toompine to Thargominda that we had intended to use upon departure (which normally crosses over several creeks/channels of the Barcoo River along the way), now had flash flood waters flowing over it.

A few calls from Rocket to his local connections soon confirmed several roads in the district had already been closed.  As we had no place to be at any particular time, rather than get upset about something we had no control over we readily accepted we would be spending another night in Toompine.  We had the best camp site in the Pub with no Town and the pub had plenty of food so it made it easy to deal with.

During the day we kept ourselves amused by checking the water level flowing across the road.  It continued to rise throughout the morning which was a little concerning, and a brief discussion about 'sand-bagging' took place but it started to recede later in the afternoon so we all relaxed a bit.  While Rocket wasn’t going anywhere himself, his concerns about the road closures revolved around the 'non-arrival’ of a party of travellers he was expecting.  It wasn’t because the travellers were in any sort of danger it was that they had pre-ordered 10 dinner meals of fish and prawn cutlets which he had prepared for that they would no longer eat.  He also had some large local Blue Claw Yabbies that he was quite proud of that he had available & ready to cook up.

Rocket with a plate of giant Blue Claw Yabbies

When we went into the pub that evening for a sundowner and looked up at the chalk board menu to consider what we would order for dinner, Rocket informed us that:

“The special for tonight is Fish and Prawn Cutlets - and it will be a generous serving too!”.

Normally, when in a bush pub situated in the midst of cattle country and located 1,000 km from the coast, I would not order the seafood.  However, under these circumstances, how could you not?

The Seafood Plate was a beauty
and (almost) more than you could eat!

What a serve it was!  4 pieces of fish, 8 prawn cutlets (butterflied, crumbed and deep fried), potato salad, pasta salad, rice salad and a large bowl of chips - for each of us!  It was delicious!

We promised Rocket we would take a few photos of the inside and outside of the pub as well as some of great food we had been served so that he could use them in his advertising material, e.g.: Facebook page, etc.  Below is one example of a collage that we created for him.

Collage of images of the Toompine Pub created for
Rocket to use to promote his establishment

He seemed to appreciate them as the one above is now the banner image of the Toompine Hotel facebook page.  We hope he gets plenty of requests for the his T-Bones and Seafood Plates!

The next morning the water was no longer flowing and the roads in our general direction of travel had been re-opened so we were free to go.  With the green light to move-on, WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, overly well fed, rolled off down the highway.

PS: WTF? - Where are The Farrows? are certainly glad to have departed our Easter camp site at The Lake near Quilpie when we did as those that remained (even those on high-ground) ended up getting ‘rained-in’.  One such couple sent us a photo showing the campsite that we were in was now well underwater.

Over Easter we were camped at the base of these
trees about 20 m from the edge of The Lake.
If still there, we would be IN The Lake!

We would have been unable to get out of there for at least a week, maybe two, until the water receded and the sticky mud dried out.