The planning opening of the Betoota Hotel in time for this weekend’s annual race meet has been postponed.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Co-owner Carol Norman said the delay was due to “paperwork” and they now planned to open it next year.
The owners said they would hold an Ice awareness event at the site this year.
Brisbane smash repairer, Robert Haken (and others including Carol and Wayne Norman) bought the historic pub before Christmas from Birdsville’s David Brook and Kym Fort.
Betoota famously has a zero population.
The pub, the only building in the town sited halfway between Windorah and Birdsville, was best known for its Polish-born publican, Simon Remienko, who managed the business for 44 years before closing the doors in 1997.
When he died in 2004, he gifted the building to David Brook and Kym Fort, the pair that rebuilt the Birdsville Hotel after the fire of 1979.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
