Our Story

Some pubs serve drinks. This one serves history.

And when we had the chance to make sure it stayed that way, we didn't think twice.

We're Angus and Jo; graziers, McKinlay locals, and as of November 2025, the new owners of the Walkabout Creek Hotel.

Angus grew up in this town. He has memories of running around this pub as a kid, sneaking a packet of chips and a soft drink while the adults caught up over a cold beer. For him, this place has never just been a pub. It's the bottle-o, the meeting place, the living room of a town 200 kilometres from Mount Isa. It's where McKinlay's 160-odd residents have gathered for generations, through droughts and good seasons, through the heat of summer and the cool of a rare winter evening.

When the hotel went on the market in 2022, we watched and waited. When the time was right, we bought it. Not as an investment. Not as a tourism venture. But because this pub belongs to this community, and someone needed to make sure it stayed that way.

The Walkabout Creek Hotel has been the heart of McKinlay since 1900, when it first opened as the Federation Hotel. It was relocated to its current home on the Landsborough Highway in 1996, and somewhere in between it became one of the most famous pubs in Australia.

That happened in 1986, when Crocodile Dundee hit cinema screens and became the highest-grossing film in Australian history. The pub lent its name - and its soul - to the film, and after production wrapped, producer John Cornell donated the original bar from the movie set back to us. It lives in the beer garden now, exactly where it belongs. People come from all over the world to stand next to it, and we love that.

But for us, the movie is just one part of the story. The bigger story is the town. The people. The country we all love.

We're running Horizon Grazing, raising our family here in McKinlay, and doing our best to make sure the Walkabout Creek Hotel is here for another hundred years.

Come and have a cold one with us sometime.

40 years of Dundee

In September 2026, it will be 40 years since Crocodile Dundee was released; and 40 years since this pub became part of Australian film history. We think that deserves more than a quiet nod.

On 25 and 26 September, we're throwing a two-day celebration at the Walkabout Creek Hotel. Live music, outback fun, good food and cold drinks, right here in McKinlay, where it all began. Details are still coming together, but trust us, you'll want to be here.

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