Ooutback hospitality and old world charm can be found at Cloncurry’s Post Office Hotel Motel on the corner of Scarr and Sheaffe Streets.

The hotel has been owned by the Schumacher and Dodd family since 1965, with the current owners Ian and Nancy Dodd offering a range of services including traditional hotel room accommodation and en suite motel units with offstreet parking, two air-conditioned bars, beer garden, dining room, pokie lounge and a bottle shop. The kitchen offers old-fashioned home-cooked meals and an extensive a la carte menu.

The property has an interesting history. The first hotel on the site was the Union Hotel (in the late 1880s), but by 1901 the name had been changed to the Post Office Hotel. The name has remained the same, even though the actual structure has changed. The hotel was extensively rebuilt in 1908, destroyed by fire in 1914, rebuilt as one of the finest hotels in the northwest but that building burned down too. Today’s structure is the fourth hotel to be built on this corner and this year it will celebrate 75 years in existence.

The Post Office Hotel is involved in sponsoring a number of events in the town, including five race meetings a year, and will have a special celebration to mark its three quarters of a century operating as a business with a big presence in the community.