FAMOUS BUSH WATERING HOLES DRY UP

Bloody Marys for breakfast: happy days in the bar of the Blinman pub ... Cheong Liew, yours truly and James "The Sheriff" Bourne at George Grainger Aldridge's famously successful Cook Out Back Camp Oven Cookoff in January 2012 ... photo©Milton Wordley

It's very bad news that both the Hawker and Blinman pubs closed their doors in January. Shut. Dry.

Both these Flinders Ranges watering holes have been central to the vast region's culture since the earliest days of bush tourism.  Not only did they precede tourism, but they were reasons for its occurrence. 

They were very important tourist attractions in themselves.

Since I first whinged about these invaluable thirst emporia closing, there came a wave of comments about there being plenty of resorts surviving in the north, but to me these missed the point: the outback cannot be gentrified. 

Both these historic public houses were essential resting places for those on a budget, which of course includes all the permanent residents of those wild and beautiful Ranges.

Not to mention hungry, thirsty, stone-broke writers. And artists.

There's talk of a consortium of locals taking the old joints over, but so far it seems this is still just talk. I'll attempt to keep you informed.

George Grainger Aldridge spends a lot of his time painting the Flinders at his old farmhouse on Druid Range, between Hawker and Blinman. Where's he gonna sit with a beer, pondering, chewing the fat, and making delightful portraits of those who wander in? ... photo©Philip White 

... and here's an example of George's Flinders work: The Flinders Granges, a big landscape that hung for a year in The Exeter until a wise British Grange collector fell in love with it and bought it for another Grange-loving mate ... I for one can vouch that George's meagre artist's income has never stretched to afford him a bottle of Grange on the Range ... was he subconsciously channeling the notion that you can't gentrify the outback?