Last Drinks at Grove Hill Pub

A few years ago, while road tripping 200km south of Darwin at the end of the wet season, my partner in Northern Territory-exploring crime, Paul, suggested we turn our champagne and orange-striped 4WD, Starbright, off the Stuart Highway and onto a dirt road bearing a sign for Grove Hill Pub. The sign featured an illustration of an old bloke wearing a bushy's hat – the kind with cork screws dangling from the brim. So I knew (*hoped*) this was going to be good. 

After a brief jaunt down a bumpy track, we arrived and I promptly experienced an I LOVE THE NT SO FREAKING MUCH moment. I couldn't believe this place existed. It felt like we'd happened upon another era. And we had. This was a piece of gold prospecting history. 

Grove Hill Pub is a cobbled-together series of tin sheds. As well as its drinks serving section, the pub is equipped with a museum of old memorabilia that houses things like iron beds, assorted rusted jugs, dingo traps, cutlery and typewriters; one towering wall is lined with 200+ beer bottles. We spotted the owner, then 79-year-old Stan Heausler, out the back having his snow white Santa-hair trimmed. In a firm, gruff voice he warned the hairdresser not to nick his scalp in the process. 

Yesterday, along with a collective of pub-loving locals, Stan served last drinks. He's now 82 (same age as the pub) and ready to call it a day. Grove Hill opened in 1934 to service prospectors at the height of the northern search for gold. Three thousand people lived nearby then, but today the pub finds itself isolated in a way few pubs are. Hear more about Stan's story here on ABC Rural. 

These photos from 2013 – incidentally, some of the first images I captured on my walkabout into travel photography – are now historic items unto themselves, I guess!

Thank you, Grove Hill Pub, for being such a stalwart of unique NT-ness for over 80 years. I'm so glad we turned down that dirt track, with a nod from old mate in the bush hat, and got to mosey around your pastures.