Both people and flies buzz around the entrance to the pub in an outback town with a population of zero.
The Birdsville races are back after a two-year break, and those travelling the dusty roads to the tiny town in remote south-west Queensland have found the Betoota pub the perfect stop on the long drive.
Publican Robert 'Robbo' Haken said those heading to Birdsville were ready to celebrate after two years of the pandemic.
"They want to let their hair down, and if you were here last night, there was a lot of hair getting let down," he said.
But it wasn't an easy process to go from ghost town to thriving watering hole.
4 inches under
When Robbo first bought the pub in 2017, it had lain abandoned for nearly a quarter of a century.
"We had to completely gut the place, completely rewire it, re-plumb it," Robbo said.
Then, after he first opened the pub in early 2020, COVID-19 caused him to close the same day a truck carrying $60,000 worth of stock arrived.
Robbo held a fire sale, selling his supplies to locals and stations across the region.
But the challenges didn't dampen his determination, and Robbo returned to Brisbane to work as a panel beater until the pub could reopen.
"That's how it goes, you've got to take the good with the bad," he said.
Home to the oldest newspaper in Australia?
If the town of Betoota rings a bell, it might be as the namesake of "Australia's oldest newspaper," satirical website the Betoota Advocate.
As their 'local' publican, Robbo has met the writers once, but said they hadn't returned any of his calls since.
Despite their lack of contact, he holds no ill-will to the Sydney-based lads who made Betoota a household name.
"You think to yourself, 'How the hell do they come up with that and get away with it?'"
He said the boys were always welcome if they wanted to drop in and visit their 'home town' for a few days.
Panel beater turned publican
While it was a steep learning curve running a pub, both Robbo's mechanical skills and the watering hole have helped make the region safer.
"I've spent plenty of time in pubs, but not on the other side of the bar," Robbo said.
Tourists who risk the stretch of unsealed roads face fatigue, as well as punctured tyres and broken equipment.
"Recently I've been told there's a reduction in car accidents on this road from Windorah to Birdsville now, because people are coming here and they're resting up, and they're not driving into the sun trying to get to Birdsville," he said.
"All my skills get used up pretty well; my trade skills get used up during the day and my dancing works at night."
Knock-off drinks
It's not only tourists who benefit from the recently reopened pub in the remote channel country.
For cattle station managers Trent and Heidi Millership, the nearby watering hole provides a place for staff to unwind.
"We're pretty lucky, we're only 2 kilometres from it [the Betoota pub]," Ms Millership said.
As the only pub in hundreds of kilometres in either direction, Mr Millership said it helped get locals together safely.
"It saves drink driving too; it's somewhere they can go that they don't have to go far," Mr Millership said.
"We tell all the neighbours to come here and they can camp the night."
Robbo said the allure of the Betoota pub was something even he couldn't explain.
"The pub has an enormous amount of atmosphere, you haven't got to look for it, you can't create it, it just grabs you," he said.
"It has some sort of aura about it … and the $5 beer helps as well."
