Heart of the Nation: Camooweal, Queensland

GRUMBLEBUM loves a beer, but only in moderation.

140809 TWAM EMBARGO FOR TWAM 9 AUG ISSUE NO REUSE FEE APPLIES Outside the pub...Crockett Paterson shares a beer with his 2 y...

CROCKETT Paterson loves a beer — and so does his horse, Grumblebum.

It was a chance discovery. Paterson went to feed and water him one hot summer’s day with a half-drunk stubby in his hand. Grumblebum, used to hand-outs of apples, nosed the bottle curiously; his lips wrapped themselves around the stubby’s neck. “So I lifted it up, and he had a mouthful,” recalls Paterson. “Then he wanted more.” It’s a weekly treat now. Does he have a favourite drink? “XXXX Gold. But he’ll have anything if it’s cold.”

Paterson, 61, has spent his life around horses — his father and grandad were drovers in the Gulf Country — but these days he and his wife Sue run the servo and motel in Camooweal, a town of 190 souls that swells in late August with the Drovers Camp Festival. The couple have raised lots of kids. After their own three grew up and left home they raised three grandchildren. They’ve also been fostering Aboriginal children for years; it’s a compassion borne out of their own fair share of life’s hard knocks. “Sue and I just thought, ‘Poor little buggers, with no one to care for them’,” Paterson explains. “You treat them as your own. And when you see them all clean and going to school, coming home with merit awards, you know you must be doing something right.” The couple have five Aboriginal infants right now — three of whom will still stay until they’re 18. “I just hope and pray that I live that long,” he says.

The kids love Grumblebum, and he’s famous around town, too, not least for his drinking — which is always in moderation, Paterson points out. “People think it’s funny,” he says. “Of course, you get a few fuddy-duddies complaining.” What, like should an animal really be boozing? Paterson sounds confused. “No, they say, ‘Why are you wasting good beer on a horse?’”