The claim
An outback pub on the banks of the Moonie River, in a hamlet of fewer than a dozen residents in south-west Queensland. It was licensed in 1864 after starting as shearers' quarters, and later served as a Cobb & Co coach stop. Travellers now come for giant burgers, riverside camping and the October long-weekend pig races.
What the records show
The State Library of Queensland, using the Queensland Hotels and Publicans' Index 1843-1900 and Trove newspapers, records a certificate granted to Thomas Bradford in 1864 for the Nindigully Hotel: a publican's licence at the claimed date. The shearers'-quarters origin is repeated there without a citation. The house traded as the Traveller's Rest from 1876 and the Sportsman's Arms from 1880, its licence was cancelled in 1903, and the present hotel is the seventeen-room building Mary Ann Haines opened in April 1911, so neither 'original condition' nor continuous licensing holds. The break and the rebuilding can now be followed in the gazette. The same library's index of licensed victuallers, which transcribes the licence lists printed in the Queensland Government Gazette between July 1900 and July 1914 and cites each by volume, number, date and page, has John Sparks holding the licence of the Sportsmans Arms Hotel in the St George district in the list gazetted on 22 January 1903, for the half-year from 1 July to 31 December 1902, and again in the list gazetted on 28 January 1904, for the half-year from 1 July to 31 December 1903. Nothing at Nindigully follows for seven years. Then Mary Ann Haines appears with the Grand Hotel at Nindigully, in the list gazetted on 14 September 1911 for the licence year ending 30 June 1912, and in four more lists to the one gazetted on 5 November 1913, the last of them a renewal for the quarter to 30 September 1913. Earlier entries put Sparks in the district without naming his house: a licence transferred to him from Robert Edward Brumpton in the gazette of 9 February 1901, and on one page of 8 November 1902 both a transfer to him from Robert James Campbell — the Sportsmans Arms licensee in the 1901 and 1902 lists — and a transfer from him to George Power. Read it with two cautions. The index gives the licence district and not the locality, so the Sportsmans Arms entries are tied to this house by name and district and not by an address, while the Grand entries name Nindigully outright. And the index runs only from July 1900 to July 1914, so it has nothing to say about 1864 or about the years after the First World War.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1864 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| 1864 | First record of a drinking house here | State Library of Queensland |
What to look for inside
- Former Cobb & Co coach change station
- Annual pig races each October long weekend
- Licence lapse 1904-c.1912 disputes 'continuous' claim
Visiting
Nindigully Pub is in Nindigully, Australia, at Sternes Street, Nindigully QLD 4497. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nindigully_Pub
- www.nindigullypub.com.au/
- escapeandexplore.com.au/eat-drink/queenslands-oldest-pub/
- www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-28/historic-pubs-queensland-drought-floods-lockdown-struggles/101079926
- www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/many-lives-nindigully-pub
- www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/state-library-of-queensland-licensed-victuallers-index
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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