Big Red Bash gateway pub hits the market in Queensland’s outback

Positioned on the town’s main drag at 15 Albert Street, close to the service station and post office, longtime owners Ian, 64, and Marilyn Simpson, 60, are looking to semi-retire after 30 years.

The pub has been tied to Marilyn’s family for generations, dating back to her paternal great-grandfather and later passing through both sides of her family before Marilyn and Ian bought it from her uncle.

The pair have operated the Western Star for most of the past 30 years – aside from an early six-year period under tenants – while also raising four children during their time at the helm.

“It’s been long-term in the family … it’s generational,” Marilyn says.

“But it will leave the generations this time … which is OK.”

Marilyn says some of her fondest memories include helping establish the now-famous Windorah International Yabby Races – a quirky tradition before the annual Birdsville Races, where crustaceans race along circular tracks on the doorstep of the Western Star before crowds of locals and tourists – and backing the local economy through decades of change in the outback.

“You can only do that out there by having confidence in your community, and the area,” she says.

Ray White Longreach agents Rhys Peacock and Bill Seeney say the opportunity would suit new owner-operators and investors seeking exposure to Australia’s booming outback tourism trade, describing the operation as a “strong business” with multiple income streams across food, beverage and accommodation, while also highlighting its profile as an “extremely well-known pub”.

“The first Western Star Hotel was established circa 1878 and has burned down a couple of times. It was renovated to its current state in 2003 with cabins then installed in 2019,” Peacock says.

He says Windorah’s isolated location is one of its greatest advantages.

“Windorah is a must-stop for anyone travelling that direction, they all stop at Windorah, because the next town is 380 kilometres away,” Peacock says.

“Pretty much everyone stops in Windorah that comes from that direction, so geographically it makes the pub well placed.”

The town, known for its giant red sand dunes, birdlife and fishing along Cooper Creek, has become a gateway for caravaners and four-wheel-drive tourists heading towards Birdsville, the Simpson Desert and the vast desert landscapes surrounding Lake Eyre, serving everyone from cattle graziers and truck drivers to anglers and music festival pilgrims.

Cooper Creek has also made Windorah popular with inland anglers, with long desert waterholes known for yellowbelly, catfish and bream fishing, and smaller channels perfect for catching yabbies.

The tiny outback township – with a population of about 120 – sits about 386 kilometres east of Birdsville and roughly 1200 kilometres west of Brisbane, with no other town between Windorah and Birdsville across the vast desert route. Quilpie, on the main inland route west from Brisbane, is about 250 kilometres east of Windorah.

The Western Star features a timber-and-corrugated-iron-clad public bar, beer garden, al fresco dining area and, in a separate building next door, the Sandhill Grill, a licensed restaurant and cafe that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner depending on the season. Locals gather daily, while travellers check in at the bar before settling into one of the six hotel rooms, four motel rooms, four modern cabins or a four-bedroom residence.

Set on a sprawling 4046-square-metre block, campers are also welcome – able to pitch a tent on the lawn behind the pub in exchange for a gold coin donation towards the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

It’s this homely welcome that serves the Western Star well, with appreciative guests contributing to a 4.5-star Google rating, alongside positive road-tripping blogger reviews that describe the pub as a highlight of their desert adventures.

“Food and service at the pub were well above what I expected for the location,” one Google review reads.

The pub’s website also promotes itself as the “winner of the best outback pub in Queensland”, an award Peacock says was handed out by the Outback Queensland Tourism Association.

The Western Star has built a loyal following thanks in part to seasonal events such as the Big Red Bash – billed as the world’s most remote music festival – and the Birdsville Races, dubbed the “Melbourne Cup of the outback”, which attract big numbers through Windorah to Birdsville and beyond.

The Big Red Bash is held on the vast organic cattle station, Adria Downs, in Bashville on the eastern edge of the Simpson Desert beside the famous 40-metre Big Red sand dune, 35 kilometres west of Birdsville.

Each year, the site transforms into a temporary desert festival town, attracting about 10,000 campers and caravaners for three days of live music, with past performers including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins and Midnight Oil.

“People with a sense of adventure travel thousands of kilometres from all over Australia to attend,” Big Red Bash founder Greg Donovan told Tourism and Events Queensland.

“Where else in Australia (or the world) can you sit on top of a 40-metre-high dune and watch live music?”

The historic Birdsville Races, meanwhile, draw about 6000 visitors annually for two days of racing, entertainment and outback festivities and have been held since 1882.

“It’s changed, different industries have changed over time,” Marilyn says.

“Going from drovers to motorbikes and helicopters and properties becoming more gobbled up and more intense … sheep shearers aren’t around like they used to be, but now we have tourism and corporate business.”

Beyond tourism, the Channel Country is famed for its sprawling cattle stations, where organic and grass-fed beef operations run across vast desert floodplains nourished by braided Cooper Creek inland systems.

Windorah is also home to one of Queensland’s earliest remote solar projects, with a solar farm established on the edge of town in 2008 to help support the community’s power supply. Serving as a major service town to the remote community, a petrol station and post office are joined by a visitor information centre and museum. 

“I’ll definitely miss the people … the connection with people,” Marilyn says of stepping back from the pub.

“Some pretty special people come through Windorah.

“You do meet great people. We had the Leyland Brothers there the other day … We’ve had a lot of people over the time, from Allan Border, who came around in his car, to football players.

“You get people passing through, you don’t make such a big deal of it, they’re chilling too, you know.”

But after three decades hosting and pulling beer taps, Marilyn says she and Ian feel the pub is ready for fresh energy and new ideas.

“It needs new people to bring it to another level,” she says.

“We did our hard yards younger, and it’s time for us to make that up … while we’re still able.”