by Robert Aspinall, Innisfail, Qld.
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| A beer by the track... |
I would like to take this opportunity to write a little about my favourite pub.
The Garradunga Hotel is on the Brisbane to Cairns Railway line, about 12km north of Innisfail and about 80km south of Cairns in far north Queensland. The pub is mentioned in a number of songs including: " On the Queensland Railway lines", "Hey Rain", the locally written "The Garradunga Song", and a couple of poems too.
The current publicans and owners, David and Jennie Aggiss, ran the Birdsville Hotel for a couple of years, prior to moving to the wettest area of Australia and buying the Historic Garradunga Hotel about 16 years ago. The road that runs near the eastern side of the hotel was once the main north - south highway to Cairns, but was by-passed in 1968ish by the current Bruce Highway, a couple of kilometres away.
Situated in the middle of sugar cane fields with bananas and other tropical fruit growing not too far away, the patrons of the hotel are mostly farmers and other locals, with a few tourists during the day. Some tourists stay for longer, using the hotels good, clean and recently refurbished accommodation as well as sampling Jennie's fine cooking. The hotel has one of the friendliest atmospheres of any hotel I have ever been in, and being the Queensland secretary of the City & Country Hotels Architectural Appreciation and Preservation Society, (CCHAAPS), that is over 1000 pubs in Queensland, 1600 in NSW and a similar number in Victoria I have visited and photographed. I have frequented much fewer pubs than this in other states. The Garradunga Hotel is my favourite pub out of these thousands, and I am often to be found holding the bar up there.
The pub has the only mens loo with a ceiling fan fitted, that I have ever seen. The reason is that "mosquitoes aren't supposed to land on you" if there is air moving around you.
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| Railway Hotel at Almaden |
Inland from Mareeba, is what CCHAAPS members continually vote as the " cleanest Hotel in Queensland". This is the Railway Hotel at Almaden, roughly 250km inland from Innisfail. I often wish it was much closer as I really enjoy visiting the publicans and owners, Joe and Nancy Boardman who have been there for a great number of years. Joe has one of the driest sense of humour that I have found. The Railway hotel is like an oasis in the desert, well almost desert. The country out there is "savanna country" mainly unfenced, lots of dirt "roads" but well worth a visit. A really great pub, with really nice owners. Accommodation is available, but book in advance. There is a once a week train service to Almaden, departing Cairns early on Wednesday mornings and returning to Cairns on Saturday evenings.
Both the Garradunga Hotel in Garradunga and the Railway Hotel in Almaden are highly recommended. See them before you worry about seeing the great barrier reef, they are far more interesting.
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| Life in Qld |
Take a break from drinking like the author of this article did - Read why and how in his book Between Drinks: Escape the Routine, Take Control and Join the Clear Thinkers