Betoota, Qld

Dubbed as the "gateway from the east", being just over 700km from Charleville and approximately 177 Km from Birdsville, Betoota is one of the most isolated places in south western Queensland. It's also one of the quietest - for 44 years it had a population of one, but in 1997 when the sole resident, who ran the Betoota pub - Ziggy (Simon) Remienko - called it a day and retired, age 82, its population fell to zero and has never recovered.

Situated on a rough dirt road between Windorah and Birdsville, its only structure is an abandoned hotel. Except for surrounding cattle stations, Betoota stands alone in the middle of a vast gibber plain.
It therefore comes as a surprise to learn that Betoota is an officially designated town, complete with a town plan and a subdivision. In 1885, the Queensland Government decided to set up a customs post at Betoota to collect a toll for stock as they travelled the stock route. Betoota was surveyed as a town in 1888 and quickly grew to three hotels, a police station, store and post office. Betoota became the site of a Cobb & Co. change station.
The practice of toll collection continued until Federation in 1901 when the reason for the town's existence ceased to exist and most of its residents moved away. The remaining hotel, which was built in the late 1880s, became a resting and refuelling spot for visitors until it closed in October 1997. The hotel was a fortress - its thick sandstone walls attached to a three metre, locked wire enclosure. If Ziggy was not in the mood for visitors, which was almost always, he ignored the doorbell. He drove to Birdsville for groceries once a month - almost a three hour trip each way. Occassionally, for a change of scenery, he drove 1400 kms to Adelaide to visit friends - four days each way. Ziggy never married, smoked or - hotel notwithstanding- drank alcohol.

Ziggy at the bar of the Betoota Hotel	Guest's faclities at Betoota

His fiery temper was legendary. Police were contacted after more than one encounter between outback travellers and a sometimes armed Mr Remienko. He was 25 when he migrated to Australia from Poland and was sent to the dusty town of Boulia, north of Betoota, where he got a job as a grader driver. He set up a contracting business, working long hours to buy the hotel in 1953. Ziggy died at the age of 88 at a Charleville nursing home on Monday 27th September 2004. A 2002 newspaper interview reported the bar still fully stocked, though bottles were coated with fine desert dust, and not a drop had been sold for 5 years. "I'm too old now, but I still have the liquor licence, just in case" Ziggy said at the time.
Besides the abandoned hotel, Betoota also boasts an impressive racetrack, which comes alive the third weekend in September each year as part of the Simpson Desert Racing Carnival and a dry weather airstrip makes it a pleasure for the enthusiast to attend the very successful race and gymkhana meetings. The Birdsville-based Diamantina Shire Council recently put some blocks up for sale in Betoota for between $200 and $500 each. To the surprise of everyone, six were sold.