If the Walkabout Creek Hotel’s walls could talk, they would have more than 120 years of tales to tell.<\/p>\n
For many, the outback pub is famous for its featured role in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee.<\/p>\n
But for locals in the tiny town of McKinlay, just over 200 kilometres from Mount Isa, it is the pub, the bottle-o, the caravan park and the post office.<\/p>\n
And now, after being on the market since 2022, it has changed hands.<\/p>\n
McKinlay-born Angus Brodie and wife Jo Cranney bought the Walkabout Creek Hotel for an undisclosed figure, settling the deal yesterday.<\/p>\n
Prior owners Deb and Frank Wurst put the pub on the market so they could retire, after being at the helm for 11 years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Angus Brodie has been learning how to manage the bar.\u00a0 (Supplied: Angus Brodie)<\/p>\n
From childhood memories to pouring his first beer<\/p>\n
Grazier Angus Brodie, 33, grew up in McKinlay, where the hotel is the central hub for the town’s 160 residents.<\/p>\n
“I have memories running around with all the other kids, sneaking a packet of chips and a soft drink,” Mr Brodie said.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes we’d take our sleeping bags and have a sleepover until it was time to go home.”<\/p>\n
The new owner had never poured a beer before last week but is ready for the challenge.<\/p>\n
“The first beer I poured, I think there was half a glass of frothy head, and the second beer had absolutely no head at all,” he laughed.<\/p>\n
“I wasn’t off to a real good start, but I promise I’ve turned things around now.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jo Cranney and Angus Brodie are graziers in McKinlay.\u00a0 (Supplied: Luke Chaplain)<\/p>\n
Ms Cranney, 34, grew up in Goondiwindi but moved to Mount Isa to be a nurse, where the two met.<\/p>\n
They now run a cattle property 30 minutes away from the pub with their two children and a baby due in April.<\/p>\n
The couple bought the pub to diversify their business and have an alternative income stream when the weather and cattle markets aren’t favourable.<\/p>\n
“In a drought, people probably drink more beer,” Mr Brodie said.<\/p>\n
The couple hopes to take a farm-to-table approach, selling their beef at the pub.<\/p>\n
“That’s one thing we’re pretty keen to do, showcase our beef and have that on the menu,” Mr Brodie said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Walkabout was originally built as The Federal Hotel in 1900.<\/p>\n
Pub ‘in fantastic condition’<\/p>\n
Decorated with memorabilia, the Walkabout Creek Hotel is beloved by locals and tourists alike.<\/p>\n
The new owners are not planning to change much and are grateful to the prior owners for keeping it in “fantastic condition”.<\/p>\n
“It’s a credit to Frank and Debbie. They’ve really looked after it over the 11 years they’ve been there,” Mr Brodie said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Frank and Debbie Wurst ran the pub in McKinlay for 11 years.<\/p>\n
Mr Wurst said he and Debbie would miss the pub when they announced their retirement plans in 2022.<\/p>\n
“I’m really going to miss the people out here \u2014 there are so many great characters,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’ll be exciting to see what the next lot do with it \u2014 if you’re going to buy a pub, may as well make it a famous one.”40 years of Dundee<\/p>\n
In 1986, Crocodile Dundee was the highest-grossing film of all time in Australia.<\/p>\n
Built in 1900 and licensed in 1901, the real-world Walkabout Creek Hotel is three times as old as the movie that made it famous, and was originally called the Federation Hotel.<\/p>\n
The bar used on the film set was donated to the pub after filming, and is now located out the back in the beer garden.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Australian actor Paul Hogan in a scene from the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. (Supplied: IMDB, Paramount)<\/p>\n
Tourists come from far and wide to snap photos with the movie memorabilia.<\/p>\n
Next year, it will be 40 years since the release of Crocodile Dundee, and the new owners plan to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n
“We will have to do something, that’s for sure,” Mr Brodie said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a crucial part of the identity of the pub, and we love it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Walkabout Creek Hotel’s walls could talk, they would have more than 120 years of tales to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,174591,174594,174593,174596,174597,174592,174595],"class_list":["post-306576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-crocodile-dundee","tag-crocodile-dundee-pub-new-owners","tag-crocodile-dundee-pub-sold","tag-mckinlay-pub","tag-mckinlay-tourism","tag-walkabout-hotel","tag-walkabout-hotel-sold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}