Surrounded by red dirt and mulga trees, Carol Yarrow and Jo Cornel are hard at work making a home as the last two residents in one of Australia's smallest towns.
More than 800 kilometres south-west of Brisbane, almost halfway between Charleville and Quilpie, the tiny town of Cooladdi proudly retains its post office and its postcode: 4479.
It's a status that makes it different from other tiny communities across the country.
The registered post office at the Fox Trap Roadhouse means Cooladdi is officially a "town", bumping it to the top of the smallest population list.
The new roadhouse owners took over the Fox Trap Roadhouse in February, and they're determined to keep this little town alive.
"Not everyone is aware it's Australia's smallest town, on Australia's longest road," Ms Yarrow said.
The Fox Trap Roadhouse is the only inhabited building in what could have become another outback ghost town.
Ms Yarrow fondly remembers the roadhouse from her childhood, growing up on a station, further west, between Quilpie and Windorah.
"I've always had mulga in my veins, and every time we'd come past the Fox Trap, it was always a tradition to stop and see Beryl and Bob [Fox, the couple who established the business]," Ms Yarrow said.
Ms Cornel is a newcomer to the outback and took up Ms Yarrow's business proposition to revive the Fox Trap.
She said there have been plenty of challenges but no regrets.
"Our saying is just keep moving forward," Ms Cornel said.
Coming in at a quiet time of year allowed the pair to find their feet before tourist season kicked in, from April to October.
They have plenty of work beyond running the roadhouse and cooking the odd burger.
"We do the mail runs to outlying stations, have a general store, motel and camping accommodation plus the bar and meals," Ms Yarrow said.
"We get a few drinkers that sit around and have yarns, and we hear heaps of stories, though I doubt many would be suitable for publication."
Locals like Rod "Pav" Wilson, caretaker on Doobibla Station, 40 kilometres west of Cooladdi, agree the Fox Trap's revival is good for their community.
"They've tidied the place up a bit and are keeping it open for us all to come in have a beer, a chat and a meal. It's a good little place," Mr Wilson said.
Cooladdi, a local Indigenous term for "black duck", once boasted a population of more than 270 people.
There was a police station, butcher, school, hotel, boarding house, and store all built around a train station and a local hall where people came together for parties and dances.
But the trains stopped coming, fewer sheep were on the properties, and the shearing teams dwindled over time until the Cooladdi school closed in 1974.
Beryl and Bob Fox moved to the district in 1958, where they worked at a station before taking over the general store in Cooladdi.
After seven floods in five years, the couple looked for higher land.
They built the Fox Trap Roadhouse in 1974, a brave move as the town population was already decreasing.
It was always a stopover for travellers and an important meeting point for the isolated outback community.
Stuck in a Fox's trap
Mrs Fox, almost 90 years old and now retired in Charleville, laughs as she retells the story of re-naming the new roadhouse a year after its opening.
"Glen Collins, a really good friend of ours, came in, and with Bob and him both being good talkers, it was 2am when he went home to his wife in Charleville, and she said, 'Where the heck have you been?', and he said, 'I got caught in the Fox Trap', and it just stuck," Mrs Fox said.
As another burger sizzles on the grill, the roadhouse's new owners are embracing the new adventure.
While the town's population is likely to stay at just two, they agree it will do them just fine for now, and they are happy amongst the mulga with millions of stars for company each night.
