Mungerannie Hotel strife ‘a disaster’ for Birdsville Track travellers

SA’s most remote pub could be forced to close after one of the country’s biggest landholders and its new owners could not come to terms on bore access.

Publican Darren Murray at the Mungerannie Hotel on the Birdsville Track. Picture: Supplied

One of South Australia’s most remote and iconic destination pubs has had its water supply cut off by one of Australia’s largest landowners in a dispute over access to an artesian bore.

A water pipe to a tank which has serviced the Mungerannie Hotel on the Birdsville Track for decades was turned off on the weekend by Northern Territory cattle, trucking and drilling magnate Viv Oldfield, the new owner of the adjoining station on which the bore is located.

However, Mr Oldfield said on Wednesday that he had advised one of the hotel’s four new owners that he “did not intend to continue the old arrangement” before they bought it.

“I gave him ample opportunity to arrange an alternative water supply,” Mr Oldfield said in an email from his lawyer.

“You don’t just buy a property expecting to be able to force your neighbour to supply you with water. The hotel has a licence to sink its own bore, just like all the other land holders in the area have done.”

Publican Darren Murray at the Mungerannie Hotel on the Birdsville Track. Picture: Supplied.

Publican Darren Murray said it would be impossible for the hotel to remain open without the water supply, leaving tourists high and dry.

“It’ll be a disaster for everyone who uses the iconic Birdsville Track if this pub dries up – and that’s what’s happening even as we speak,” Mr Murray said.

“We have travellers and campers and adventurers who visit and love this joint. They camp or stay in basic accommodation, and get the chance to have a much needed shower. Plus we have the only public toilets on a relatively busy 500km stretch of road.”

Mr Oldfield’s lawyer, Luke Gardiner, said his client bought Mungerannie Station on October 7 last year, after which the hotel’s now owners had sought an assurance from him that the supply of water would be guaranteed before they entered into a contract.

Publican Darren Murray at the Mungerannie Hotel on the Birdsville Track. Picture: Supplied

“Mr. Oldfield declined to give such an assurance,” Mr Gardiner said.

“Whatever was the arrangement between the previous owner of Mungerannie Station and the previous owner of the Mungerannie Hotel is not binding on Mr. Oldfield. This was pointed out in the clearest terms to the current owners prior to them purchasing the hotel.”

Mr Gardiner also said that the new owners had been presented with a written document setting the terms on which his client was prepared to continue supply, but had not responded.

One of the Mungerannie Hotel’s new owners, Melbourne electrician Andrew Norman, said the previous owners of both the pub and the adjoining station had a handshake agreement over access to the water.

The only other way to supply water to the hotel’s 20,000 litre tank was to have it trucked in, which would prove too expensive to be financially viable.

“We are contemplating whether we need to shut the pub entirely. The nearest water supply that we’ve got access to is about 100km away,” Mr Norman said.