One of the outback’s famous curiosity pubs – just 17 hours north of Adelaide – has hit the market, with an asking price of $1.2 million.
The Mungerannie Hotel is the stuff of legends, comprising a pub, dining room, accommodation, camp amenities and campground, a large manager’s home and workshop, on 11.2 hectares littered with outback folklore.
Lot 10, the Birdsville Track, is approximately 206 kilometres north of Marree, and 311 kilometres south of Birdsville, and the only fuel stop between the two towns.
It is also around 50 kilometres west of the fabled Lake Eyre, but the pub does come with its own wetland and hot spring, being in the heartland of South Australia’s massive network of lakes north of the Spencer Gulf.
The vendor is 60-year-old former Holden veteran Phil Gregurke, who has worked the place since 2006.
“I love it,” Gregurke told The Advertiser. “It’s a licence to drink, a licence to smoke, and you’re far enough away from everything.
“You’ve got to follow some rules, sure, but you can certainly have some fun out here.”
While the pub also includes a four-hole golf course, Gregurke says “I wouldn’t go out there … too many snakes”.
The business reportedly enjoyed around 200,000 visitors last year, and provided entertainment in the form of mock weddings, drag shows and yabby races. But even when there are no shows, one can spend hours looking around and still not see everything. There is a large collection of hats in the front bar, most of which were donated by workers on the infamous Birdsville Track.
Virtually all the decorations come as part of the sale.
“There’ll be only a very small amount of stuff taken from the pub, and that’s my own possessions, but everything that was given to the pub or was previously there, that can all stay,” says Gregurke.
The pub’s old caretaker hopes to sell it so he can rebuild his house, lost in fires at Sampson Flat, just outside of Adelaide. He says that will be his “final project before full retirement”.
The property is being marketed by Ray White’s Darren Sherriff, in Port Augusta, who says the rare freehold will suit a certain type of person.
“Most of the area is leasehold, which is a 99-year lease, whereas this particular pub and the camping ground is freehold,” reports Sherriff.
“It’s a unique lifestyle, and something that someone with a bit of character would really enjoy.”
