Daly Waters - April 2021

We travelled over 400 kms today with 4 stops before leaving the town of Newcastle Waters. A short drive up the Stuart Highway we came to Daly Waters Pub turnoff, and then a short drive into the town. WOW, it is better than we had seen on TV. More than a pub, it is a little town full of interesting nick knacks everywhere one looks, including a sleepy live freshwater crocodile.

The caravan park is basic but the sites are large. Upon arriving check in is in the pub and then a drive back to the start of town and the caravan park entrance. The cost per night for power is $32.40 and that includes the credit card fee.

The caretaker looked at our van and then led us to a spot that he knew we could get satellite coverage - how good was that, a caretaker/manager who cares! It was nice to have power again especially as temperatures are over 35 degrees, air-con was the first thing to be turned on. Once set up we started walking up the street looking at the quirky things, 

starting with the crocodile.

There is even a petrol station

The first people who inhabited the area were the Yangman Aborigines. In 1862 explorer John McDougall Stuart discovered fresh water here and named the area Daly Waters after the then governor of South Australia, Sir Dominic Daly. The discovery of fresh water meant this was the last fresh water before the perilous Murranji Stock Route. 

A pub was established in 1893 and the pub today was built in 1930. The telegraph line followed the stock route and arrived in Daly Water in 1872. An original telegraph pole dating back to 1878 was found in the bush and now stands outside the pub. 

In 1930 a local tin miner named Bill Pearce and his wife Hennrietta built a store to service travellers, and later air passengers on route to London and was given a jug licence in 1938. Local station owners threatened to burn it down to stop their local ringers from leaving work and going into town. It was a condition of licensing that the pub, then called the Wayside Inn, that a hitching rail and water trough full of clean water be made available for horses, bullocks, camels, and travelling public. Today the old bathtub and rail hitch still sit outside the pub. 

The pub itself has a large array of memorabilia adorning every wall and even the ceiling. The trend of leaving something behind started in the 1980's with a coach driver betting his female passengers that they couldn't drink a certain number of drinks and if they did not they had to leave their bra behind, some still do. A bus driver couldn't say that anymore, it would be sure to offend someone.

The pub was crowded when we were there and there was a queue for the both the food orders and the bar. 

We sat for a while in the beer garden and watched a country music duo, Jen and Tonic. The pub is famous for its Barra and Beef meal, but also had a very good range of other meals.

We only stayed one night as we were keen to get to Western Australia, but this is one place we will definitely be coming back to, - we really should have stayed a couple more nights. They also have two swimming pools.

Daly Waters was the first International Airport in Australia. The airport still exists today and houses a museum. It is an interesting short walk/drive to the airport, past some relics left behind from WW2 by both Australian and American air forces. March 1942 the airport became part of an RAAF station. The museum was closed when we were there.