Great South Australian Pub Crawl: This week, the Cradock Hotel

The Sunday Mail has embarked on a Great South Australian pub crawl, visiting weird and wonderful watering holes all over the state. This week, the Cradock Hotel.

30-6-15 - Lyndhurst Country Assignment - 52 Pubs in 52 Weeks - Shiree Holden at the Cradock Hotel in Cradock Pic Simon Cross

IT WAS a new frontier – a region that promised so much for new settlers wanting to open up the virgin bush to wheat and sheep farming.

In the shadow of the ­Flinders Ranges, the town of ­Cradock was established in 1879 and, over the next decade, the sense of optimism resulted in a thriving community that had a school, three churches, a police station, a store, two blacksmith shops and two pubs.

Sadly, the boom never eventuated, with a series of drought sending many farmers to the wall and forcing a population exodus within two decades.

Today only the Cradock Hotel remains. During the lean times, it was known as the Heartbreak Hotel.

Despite being just a pockmark on the landscape of gibber and native trees, it has become a popular stopover for tourists heading north into some of South Australia’s most spectacular country.

From a population of just seven, the town 320km north of Adelaide swells on most weekends when people come in from station homesteads for social gatherings.

The Cradock Hotel, in Cradock, SA. Photo: Simon Cross

The pub, built in 1881, is run by Shiree and Peter Holden, who have had the lease for four years. The floorboards creak and a combustion heater blazes at one end of the bar, where 40 or more locals squeeze in each Friday and Saturday night for the “pub grub” and conversation while the two pub dogs roam.

“The Bushman” portrait overlooks everything from the hallway, and two cartoons of the pub, drawn by Ken Maynard of Ettamogah Pub cartoon fame, have been painted directly on the walls.

“They (the locals) love the character of the place and don’t want it to change too much,” Shiree said. “So we’re trying to keep the old, country feel. You don’t need all the bells and whistles.

“Many people just pull up and come in for a look because of its character and they also like to see the tin elephant, giraffe and cowboy hats outside.”

The pub as it was circa 1927. Photo: Simon Cross

Of course, it wouldn’t be a pub without the resident ghost. In this case, it’s former publican Lawrence Riordan, who died there of the Spanish flu in 1919.

He doesn’t bother the patrons – nobody has confessed to seeing him – but there are all those strange happenings.

“He died in Room 6 – they left him in there for a few days because they didn’t want to touch him and pick up the bug but they had to move him eventually,” Shiree said. “No one’s seen him but we’ve had doors come wide open and the lights go on by themselves.

“The locals all know about Lawrence and they speak about him and we have the Riordan family come up for race day and they book out the whole place. They don’t ask for it but I put all the grandkids in Room 6 and I tell them to go and have a talk to grandad.”

Howzat??? A dirt cricket oval at Cradock.

Shiree says she and Peter love the lifestyle, admitting “we’re not here to make a million dollars”.

“Everything gets worked out in here – that’s how we got the Christmas Pageant going three years ago and last year there were 21 floats with 90 people in it. And there’s also the annual cricket match against nearby Hawker on the dirt oval.

“This is a meeting ground, and if locals didn’t have the pub they wouldn’t see each other for months at a time.

“We have a couple that come in 60km every week. They get here about 7.45pm and don’t leave till about 1pm. I guess they’ve got to come so far they might as well stay and enjoy themselves.”

And if the pub ever closed for good?

“The spirit of the town would be lost,” Shiree said. “This place is like the building blocks that keep the community together.”

■ This story is part of the Sunday Mail’s Great SA Pub Crawl

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