This unique location meant that the bar was split between the two states, with one half in New South Wales and the other in Queensland. The town’s pub became famous not just for its location, but for a quirky advantage stemming from the differing pub closing times between the two states. For much of the 20th century, New South Wales enforced a 6pm closing time for pubs, while in Queensland, closing time was 8pm. Patrons at the Hungerford border pub would simply walk to the Queensland side of the bar after 6pm, allowing them to keep drinking for an extra two hours!
The Hungerford ‘Royal Mail Hotel’ was constructed in 1873 of corrugated iron, which was transported over 200 kms from New South Wales on bush tracks. It is the original building, which is still in use to this day. The Royal Mail was originally a Cobb & Co Staging Post where weary horses and travellers gained some respite from the road, heat and infrequent floods.
Poet Henry Lawson had an ale at the Royal Mail, and no doubt enjoyed a welcome break from the harshness of the outback countryside. Lawson had walked from Bourke in the summer of 1893, and at the end of a long and thirsty tramp, Henry Lawson declared the ale he was served was ‘a glass of sour yeast.’ He joked that an extradition order was needed for the Queensland police to settle a row in NSW. He also declared the vermin-proof barrier a source of mirth among the rabbits who burrowed under and lived on either side.
“…The town is right on the Queensland border, and an interprovincial rabbit-proof fence – with rabbits on both sides of it – runs across the main street… Hungerford consists of two houses and a humpy in New South Wales, and five houses in Queensland. Characteristically enough, both the pubs are in Queensland. We got a glass of sour yeast at one and paid sixpence for it – we had asked for English ale.
Henry Lawson – Hungerford
The post office is in New South Wales, and the police barracks in Bananaland. The police cannot do anything if there’s a row going on across the street in New South Wales except to send to Brisbane and have an extradition warrant applied for; and they do not do much if there’s a row in Queensland. Most of the rows are across the border, where the pubs are.”
Today
Royal Mail Hotel
The Royal Mail Hotel, situated on Hungerford’s main street along the Dowling Track, is a classic outback pub within easy reach of Currawinya National Park.