THE PUB WITHOUT A TOWN Toompine Cheepie

So how does a pub end up minus a town? The South Western Hotel (circa 1893) is all that remains of what was a once bustling frontier opal town. This old Cobb & Co staging post became the stomping ground for dusty miners and pioneering pastoralists following the discovery of opal in the 1860s. By the turn of the century Toompine had a police station, several houses, hotel, butcher, blacksmith and stables.

After several years of renovations, the pub is now open and trading 7 days a week. They serve barista coffee & cake, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Excellent fishing and yabbying spots are just a stone’s throw from the pub. Fossick for opal at nearby Duck Creek and Sheep Station Creek Opal Fields. Toompine is located 77km south of Quilpie (fully sealed).

A New Generation

Quilpie locals, Stu and Kate Bowen, bought the pub in 2019. The two year restoration project became a family affair, with the help of daughter Lauren and son-in-law Sean.

ONCE A TOWN, NOW HOME TO NONE

If you travel east from Quilpie for about 77km you’ll stumble across the remote town of Cheepie.

In another, more prosperous life, Cheepie served as a Cobb & Co Change Station and later a Railhead from Charleville. Turn back the clock to the early 1900s and you’d find a butcher, baker, blacksmith and town policeman. Locals of that time could quench their thirst at the Royal Mail Hotel.

Sadly, little more is known about the hotel except that it burnt down in 1987. Given that the town was a railhead, it naturally housed a railway station, which still stands today – although no longer in Cheepie. It was relocated to Quilpie in 2017 to become what is now the Quilpie Rail Museum.

Cheepie is located 77km east of Quilpie (fully sealed).