On the trail of Outback Pubs

A breadcrumb trail of existing and long-gone pubs has been created to tempt more visitors to Outback NSW.

Well known Bourke local, Andrew Hull has had a long and varied career, but these days concentrates on different forms of storytelling.

“I do a lot of work with photography, magazines and video and helping people with their narrative. Every now and again, I’ll put out a CD of bad poetry to annoy the people of the world,” Hully said.

Most recently, he has been working with the Far North West Joint Organisation which consists of Cobar, Bourke and Walgett Shire Councils who collaborate on projects and seek funding on a larger scale than they could individually.

“Essentially they are another layer of local government,” Andrew said.

“A few years ago, they did a strategic marketing plan for the region and looked at the tourism infrastructure. It’s a big area and very diverse and one issue identified was a lower than optimum level of digital presence. There wasn’t enough good imagery, video, or general digital presence for businesses in the west.”

The desire to increase that digital presence was soon combined with a plan to attract more tourists to the region and give them reasons to further explore our great locations. The outcome was to create a focus on the pubs that exist in the local villages and towns, both currently and in the past.

“There were so many historic pubs to discover,” Andrew said.

“On a Cobb and Co route, for example, there might have been a pub every 10 and 20 miles, depending on the landscape. […]

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Bourke Mayor Lachlan Ford (centre) with Andrew Drane and Andrew Hull from the Pub Route team – with signs from ‘The Pub Route’ . Photo TWH