Top-5 Outback pubs

What you want after a long day of dusty roads is a good feed, a chat with a friendly publican and maybe somewhere to sleep. Or if you’re just dropping in, at least something authentically Australian and not just a souvenir-selling tourist trap. Here are five we reckon amply fit the bill.

And the Daly Waters Pub is cracker: it was built in the 1930s, has a bougainvillea draped veranda, crocodile and roo are on the menu and accommodation ranges from rooms to campsites.

The bar is decorated with ladies’ bras left by lasses involved in drinking challenges (or sometimes not) so there’s always an opening conversational gambit with the barman and plenty of laughs.

In practical terms it’s the last stop for fuel; more satisfyingly, it’s a great place to stay for an entertaining evening with owner Phil Gregorke. There’s the bar with its amazing hat collection, top pub meals and even a swimming pool for guests.

An added bonus for bird-watchers is a wetlands area fed by bore water. And if you really like it, you can stay indefinitely: the pub was recently put up for sale.

Or the pub is anyway, because that’s about all there is in town. The bar is a cheerful place, the accommodation is clean and cool, the dining room is built from old Ghan railway sleepers and an airstrip means scenic flights over Lake Eyre are on tap. As is a cold beer, of course.

Owners Margaret and Kevin Pusey run the bar, accommodation, beer garden, fuel stop and grocery store while Willie the wandering horse is guest relations manager. Kookynie’s ghost-town relics are worth checking out for those looking to escape the Big Smoke.