Remotest pub for sale

It does not feature on many pub crawls, given that the nearest city is almost 900 miles away. But the Birdsville Hotel is probably Australia’s best-known watering hole and its name has become synonymous with the Outback.

Now its owners have decided to call it a day and have put the property on the market, with a successful bidder expected to offer up to £4 million.

“Sometimes you’ve got to know when enough’s enough,” said Jo Fort, who has owned the Birdsville with her husband, Kym, for 27 years. “You just have to know when you’ve done your bit.”

Located on the edge of the Simpson Desert in far western Queensland, long considered the gateway to the Outback, the Birdsville is a popular rest stop for travellers tackling the Birdsville Track. About 45,000 travellers visit the hotel every year.

Birdsville, which dates from 1884, was named by a cattle station owner who was amazed by the diversity of birdlife which inhabited the area including seagulls on inland lakes. Brisbane, the nearest city, is 870 miles (1,400km) away.

Mrs Fort said that there had been considerable interest in the sale, given the hotel’s legendary status. “People who don’t even drink beer have a beer in the front bar here,” she said.

The first European explorer to venture into this lonely area was Charles Sturt, after whom Sturt Stony Desert to the southeast of the Birdsville is named. Sturt was unambiguous in his response to the terrain, describing it as a “desperate region having no parallel on Earth”.

There has been anxiety among Birdsville’s 100 residents about the future of their only watering hole. The next- closest hotel is 124 miles away.