Kimba Gateway Hotel review | SA’s Great Travel Planner

Kimba Gateway Hotel had delivered the best sleep since a general anaesthetic a year earlier.

Waking up halfway across Australia, I was completely smug about my choice of accommodation. Kimba Gateway Hotel had delivered the best sleep since a general anaesthetic a year earlier.

Many a night has been ruined by a minibar fridge which rattles to life every 20 minutes but not this night. The fridge, the airconditioner and even the pub patrons kept it down as I got a full eight hours on a perfect queen-size bed.

Just as a good flight is one that arrives, a good hotel is one you can sleep in.

The rest is just icing. That said, I initially found it bothersome that my executive queen suite was not well-iced. As important as “executive” sounds, it does not run to a working clock radio, power points near the bed, Wi-Fi or even tissues.

An executive suite at the Kimba Gateway Hotel. Picture Jill Pengelley

There were no instructions for the airconditioner remote control and no phone in the room to call the front desk for help.

I could get dressed again, go out into the cold night, up the street, around the corner and into the front bar with my aircon remote and my confused look. Or I could spend a stubborn hour punching at buttons and trying to tell the sun from a snowflake.

With no Wi-Fi, and being a Vodafone customer, Googling the solution was not an option. Kimba sits on 1800km of road between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie not covered by my phone carrier. I was off the grid. I was not entirely unhappy about this, once I had mastered the airconditioner. I took a hot shower and got into bed knowing no one could call me, text me, tweet or send snaps.

At check-in, be sure to listen better than I did when they reveal the secret location for the continental breakfast.

I did a complete lap of the building, pushing on all the locked doors, before I finally found a sneaky lane around the back.

Breakfast is basically cereal, fat milk and white bread; and that’s OK. There are no low-fat, soy, decaf or whole-wheat options but there is the option to take it or leave it.

The pub was a great choice for tea the night before, however, serving up a chicken parmigiana as good as any.

The giant mural on grain silos at Kimba. Picture: Jill Pengelley

For many travellers, Kimba, with a population of 650, is unlikely to be a destination in itself but a welcome stop on the way to points west or east.

Before hitting the road again, there are several sites worth taking in. The giant mural on the Kimba grain silos was completed in September 2017, by Melbourne artist Cam Scale, taking 26 days and 200 litres of paint.

The next-biggest attraction is The Big Galah, which could do with a lick of that paint. The 8m bird, which is 25 years old, stands outside the Halfway Across Australia Gem Shop.

Nearby is the Halfway Across Australia sign, where visitors can stop to reflect on just how far they’ve come. It tells the story of a relatively new town, proclaimed in 1915, which continues to support one of South Australia’s largest wheat-growing areas – a region which averages almost 40 per cent less rain than Adelaide.

For an overview, take a short drive to Whites Knob Lookout, eight minutes out of town. Standing on the rise, which offers views in all directions, are sculptures of explorer Edward John Eyre and an unnamed Aboriginal tracker.

Leave Kimba as you arrived, with great care, because the town is surrounded by kangaroos, if the dead ones on the roadside are anything to go by.

Reviews are unannounced and paid for by SAWeekend

This review was first published in November 2018 and had details updated in March 2021.

• 40 High St, Kimba
• 08 8627 2888
• kimbahotel.com.au [e-mail]

LOCATION 465km northwest of Adelaide

ACCOMMODATION Twenty-seven rooms with ensuite, ranging from budget twin rooms to an executive two-bedroom suite.

FACILITIES All rooms have a queen bed or two single beds, an ensuite, TV, tea and coffee-making equipment, airconditioning and a small fridge. Meals are available in the hotel dining room and continental breakfast in the dining room is included with all rooms.

PRICE From $99 (budget twin) and from $209 (executive two-bedroom) per night.