- Shaynee Scott, 60, from Mount Dare, SA moved to the Simpson Desert to help her parents run Mount Dare Hotel, and ended up taking it over herself.
- No two days were the same at Australia’s most isolated pub. Shaynee’s role included rescuing wildlife, medical emergencies and rescuing stranded travellers.
- From orphaned joeys to unexpected romance, the outback pub becomes a place of adventure, community and love.
Here Shaynee tells her own story in her own words.
Staring at the bright red earth of the Simpson Desert, I batted away a fly as sweltering 50° heat hit me. Looking up at the rustic Mount Dare Hotel, I half laughed.
When my mum, Sandra, then 73, and dad, Graham, 66, had asked for a hand at their new pub, I didn’t realise how remote it was.
This is some first trip to the outback! I thought.
As I walked in trailed by Gem, my beloved kelpie, a crowd raised their glasses to say hello. With hundreds of stubby holders strung up, the warm atmosphere bowled me over – and it wasn’t just the heat!
‘We’re at least 1000km from every beach in Australia,’
‘We’re flat out. Lucky you’re here,’ Dad grinned behind the bar with Mum.
It was a world away from the cattle station they’d run back in Victoria’s High Country.
When Mum had a crazy idea to buy a country pub, she and Dad fell in love with Mount Dare. Eight weeks later, in June 2015, they’d bought the hotel.
Now, two months on, as I got to work behind the bar to help them out for a while, I couldn’t believe the number of people who passed through.
The hotel, converted from an old cattle station machinery shed, was just 10km south of the South Australian / Northern Territory border.
Running on a generator, with a campground, a petrol station, mechanic shop, two airstrips, a big waterhole and a beer garden with a lush patch of green grass, we were a true oasis in the desert.
Thankfully, one thing we never ran out of was beer!
‘We’re at least 1000km from every beach in Australia,’ Dad said proudly, making us the most remote pub in Oz.
If we ran out of supplies it was a three day long 1040km round trip into Alice Springs. Thankfully, one thing we never ran out of was beer!
Fuel tanker deliveries and mail by plane were the only deliveries – there was no online shopping!
Staff from the neighbouring Hamilton and New Crown cattle stations would drive or sometimes fly in on light airplanes for a beer and a cuppa. And there was a stream of excited travellers coming for a beer, a feed, petrol or needing our mechanic to fix their cars before journeying across the Simpson Desert.
Wildlife flocked to the hotel seeking respite from the heat – roos, dingos, huge monitor lizards and native birds such as black cockatoos, galahs and budgies.
I regularly stepped over long brown snakes on the way into work. And one day a beautiful taipan, the world’s most venomous snake, slithered into the bar. I shooed him out gently with a broom, laughing, ‘No drinks for you mate!’
We often doubled as a rescue service. With cars regularly breaking down in the desert heat, emergency services radioed from Canberra telling us a radio beacon had activated and gave the GPS coordinates. Then we’d go out ourselves or send someone to tow them back.
Previously a nurse, I took responsibility for the Royal Flying Doctor Medical kit we’d been supplied, which included high-grade painkillers and a defibrillator.
Before I knew it people were coming in with cuts, sprains and broken bones, whipping their shirts off for me to patch them up over the bar as the Royal Flying Doctor (RFDS) triaged them by phone.
I’d only been at the pub a year or so when I got a call to say there was an orphaned joey.
‘Bring it in,’ I said, being an animal lover.
Calling the little roo Jackie Long Legs, I soon learned how to give him milk from a bottle – and he was the first of many.
I bandaged up damaged roo limbs and helped nurse them back to health, often up all night. They lounged on bean bags out the back of the pub and visitors loved them as they hopped about. I often nursed injured birds too, and we set up an aviary with Gouldian and zebra finches.
We were so busy in high season and staff came from all over the world. Tourists visited us from all over and celebrities such as Grant Denyer and Dick Smith even stopped in for a pint.
When Mum and Dad retired and moved nearer to Adelaide, I took over running the pub in 2023.
I’m the only permanent resident of Mount Dare, making the town’s population at times, just one – me! It’s two if you count Gem!
There’s been a fair few romances in the pub. And three years ago, I spotted a familiar face.
‘How are you?’ I laughed as I served Dave, 61, who I’d known growing up back in Victoria. It had been decades since I’d last seen him and he was passing through on holiday.
‘I love the beauty, community and desert magic of Mount Dare.’
‘I can’t believe you’re running the pub,’ he said amazed at the coincidence.
Despite living in Queensland thousands of kilometres away, Dave kept coming back and soon romance sparked for us. We’ve got the perfect relationship – Dave visits every few weeks, helping out behind the bar.
My brother Kel, 58, often helps out too.
READ MORE: I get paid to taste beer!
I love the beauty, community and desert magic of Mount Dare.
‘I’ve got red earth fever,’ I tell Mum, now 84, and Dad, 77.
Every day here brings a new adventure and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
