The Outback community of Toompine is celebrating two epic wins: the reopening of the Toompine’s South Western Hotel (circa 1893) and funding for a life-changing bore.
The beer taps are again flowing at Toompine Hotel A.K.A ‘the pub with no town’ with local water taps soon to follow in 2023, a first in decades.
The double-boon will help the community again celebrate its Cobb & Co heritage and opal town in a beautifully-restored venue.
New owners overcoming challenges
While there’s no town in Toompine many people live on the surrounding land. It’s also just 75km from Quilpie so it gives the region another social outlet and a stop-off point for the thousands of tourists.
But the pub sadly shut in March 2020 due to COVID, local flooding as well as supply and staff shortages, says Justin Hancock, Quilpie Shire CEO.
“The restoration work … is a real credit to owners Stuart and Kate Bowen,” says Justin.
Lauren and Sean run the Pub with Lauren’s parents, Stuart and Kate, who bought it back in 2019 just before COVID hit.
“We’ve had a bit of a run of bad luck having to close because of COVID not long after we took over the pub, then staff shortages, flooding in the region.
“Some minor restoration work we had planned while we were closed blew out to a major project when we kept discovering new issues and things that needed immediate attention to salvage them,” says Lauren.
“But all that’s behind us now. The restoration is complete and it all looks great.”
New bore, supporting tourism
Lauren is excited at the prospect of a new bore for her local community.
“We have run out of water before when the water was used faster than it could flow from the failing old bore. So this new bore will be life-changing. People [who] come for our cold beers … can stop and stay to enjoy the region.”
The new water infrastructure will also improve living conditions and support the Recreation Grounds (Polocrosse and Gun Club) as well as other tourism activities, such as polocrosse and clay shooting events.
“The community has had to plan for many weeks [to fill the water tanks] due to the very low flows from the current bore. So, there’s a lot of excitement about the new water source,” says Justin.
Funding for the Quilpie Shire Council – Toompine Town Bore Replacement comes from the Queensland Government’s Building Better Regions grants as well as contributions from Council and Toompine landholders.
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