Royal Carrangarra Hotel

The Royal Carrangarra Hotel is the pub on Arthur Street in Tambo, a town of a few hundred people on the Landsborough Highway between Blackall and Augathella in Queensland's central west. The site has poured beer since 1863, making it the oldest licensed pub ground in the central west, and the building has burned down and been rebuilt three times before the current 1954 version; Carrangarra itself is an old word for a feasting and resting place. This is a proper outback country pub with rooms out the back: cold beer on the verandah, friendly locals, and a resident cast that includes pub dogs and a host whose chicken races have become town legend.

Dogs at the hotel

Per the hotel's own site, this is a pet friendly outback pub where dogs are welcome to stay indoors with you, including in the air conditioned rooms, and the bar is pet friendly as well; that indoor stay is the detail that separates it from the country pubs where the dog ends up on a chain outside. Standard country pub courtesy applies, which in practice means your dog is polite around the pub's own resident dogs, and travellers report the staff will take several dogs at once, though you should still confirm the count when you ring.

Pet arrangements should be coordinated in advance with the hotel by phone or email, and it is worth doing early, because the pet friendly and family rooms in a town this size book out fast and there is no fallback across the road. The rooms are old-school pub style with shared bathrooms down the hall, so plan the dog's toilet runs and your own shower queue around that reality, and be aware the rooms sit close to a working pub: an anxious dog will hear the evening traffic and the chicken races.

Worth knowing

Tambo sits halfway between Blackall and Augathella, and the town's other claim to fame is the Tambo Teddies wool toy workshop, worth a look on the morning walk. Of an evening the chicken races run for charity at the bar, and early risers point at the pie shop on the pub's corner for a breakfast stop before the highway heat arrives. Continuing west or east, the Take a Break Bush Camping at Nankin covers the Emerald end of the central highlands corridor, and the Glenview Retreat in Emerald is the city-sized base with room for the dog.

Close by with the dogs

The Pepis Land Dog Off Leash Area in Emerald is the fenced leg stretch on that corridor, and more pet friendly stays across the state sit in the Queensland dog friendly stays listing.