Euramo Hotel turns into Euramo Yacht Club once again, as floods hit North Qld

For the second time in 13 months, a notorious North Queensland pub has defied advancing floodwaters to stay open for locals battling the region’s latest wild weather event.

A North Queensland pub has once again turned itself into a “yacht club” amid torrential rain and flash flooding, with locals boarding tinnies and canoes to grab a beer.

Euramo Hotel - or Euramo Yacht Club - in Euramo has kept its doors open over the weekend despite creeping flood waters, with more than 20 boats stopping by for a beer and a pub feed.

For owner Olenka (Ollie) Muzic, it was a sense of deja-vu harking back to December 2023 during Cyclone Jasper where locals arrived at the pub in dinghies as floods ravaged the area.

However, this rain event was different, with roads remaining cut off after rain came in “thick and fast” on Saturday afternoon.

“You still couldn’t drive a car through it (the road), now, which is different to 2023 because in 2023 it was up and down in a day, but this is still hanging about,” Ms Muzic said.

Euramo residents took their boats to the Euramo Yacht Club (Hotel Euramo) for a cold beer while their town was inundated. Picture: Toni Muzic

While the owner wasn’t surprised to see the first canoe rock up to the pub at 8.30am on Sunday, she was shocked at the number of boats who arrived throughout the day.

“The 2023 [flood] was a bit higher, and so I was thinking, oh, you know, boats aren’t going to come in today,” she said.

“It was a full on day, and we were not expecting that, I would have been surprised if five turned up, let alone 23.”

While the Euramo and Tully areas received just under a metre of rain in the past week, Ms Muzic said her heart went out to the Townsville, Ingham and Cardwell communities which were inundated.

Euramo residents took their boats to the Euramo Yacht Club (Hotel Euramo) for a cold beer while their town was inundated. Picture: Toni Muzic

“It was very sombre,” she said.

“We all laugh and joke about it and go oh yeah, you know, here we go again. But the deep reality of it is its people’s livelihoods that are affected by it, their mental health is terribly, brutally fragile at the moment.”

For many community members, the Euramo “Yacht Club” was a place they could escape a dire situation.

“It’s very important that people have somewhere where they can not worry,” Ms Muzic said.

“We had a young fella here yesterday ... he was told water was just running through his house and he looked at me and said my place is completely underwater.”

“That’s the important thing, that they can come here and they can not think about what’s gone on at home. They can go, let’s have a beer, let’s have a laugh with our mates, put some music on, and not think about it until they have to.”

Originally published as Euramo Hotel turns into Euramo Yacht Club once again, as floods hit North Qld