NEED TO KNOW
- Mt Dare Hotel is located on the edge of the Northern Territory’s Simpson Desert.
- The hotel is vital last-stop hub with a pub, fuel, mechanical repairs and rooms for travellers braving the desert..
- From broken-down vehicles to sweeping snakes daily, owner Shaynee Scott says tourists flock to the hotel regularly.
It’s not unusual for Shaynee Scott to come across one of the world’s deadliest snakes – the inland taipan – merrily weaving its way through her home.
“I sweep them out with a broom. There are snakes everywhere, but they’re not aggressive around here,” Shaynee, 60, tells New Idea with a shrug.
It’s hardly her greatest challenge as owner of Australia’s most remote pub, the Mt Dare Hotel, where temperatures climb to 50C in summer and the number of permanent residents is just one – herself!
“It took me six weeks to get used to it here,” she tells us. “I’m from the Victorian High Country. It’s beautiful there, and when Mum and Dad bought this place I wondered why the hell we were out here, but I’ve got red-sand fever now. I love it.”
Shaynee’s parents, Sandra and Graham Scott, bought Mt Dare, on the edge of the Northern Territory’s Simpson Desert, 12 years ago after a boozy lunch with a mate who was a hotel broker.
“They were cattle farmers and I thought they were going to retire, so I was shocked to hell,” Shaynee says. “I worked with horses back then and I’d just broken my neck. I was in a lot of pain so I said I’d go and help out [with the pub] while I got a handle on that.”
But, after that first trip, the place got its claws into Shaynee and, by 2021, she had moved there full time. Her folks are now retired and she manages the place herself with the help of her kelpie, Gem.
“I don’t get lonely. Every day is an adventure out here. Not always a good adventure,” Shaynee says with a laugh. “I’m always busy.”
In summer the pub is surprisingly packed and, by June, Shaynee can be serving 150 to 170 meals a night with a staff of up to 16.
“The Simpson Desert is the last wild frontier. There are a lot of tourists,” Shaynee says.
This means her recovery business is also thriving as she’s constantly called out to broken-down vehicles, often on a three-day round trip.
“Most people do their research. It’s a big undertaking, but I do sometimes have to tell people they shouldn’t go. One family came in thinking they’d be at Birdsville campsite in a day. It takes four days, with 1100 sand dunes to cross, and they had no water, food or camping gear!” she shares.
When the worst happens, Shaynee is also a medical first responder working with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).
“It can be anything from bites to breathing difficulties, rashes to broken limbs. We go and get them and bring them back to the pub,” Shaynee says.
“It happens that we’re stripping a shirt off someone on a table looking for broken bones when we’re crazy with customers!”
The RFDS will extract the most seriously injured patients, and Shaynee has seen many in her time.
“The breaks can be pretty bad and it’s often from motorbikes,” she tells us.
But for every stressful situation, there’s nothing that a cold drink in the beer garden can’t fix.
“We have bore water so there’s grass in the garden and a pond which all the animals come for a drink at,” Shaynee says. “The birdlife is amazing with thousands of finches and parakeets.”
There are also a few resident rescue joeys Shaynee raises around the place.
While remote, life is never dull and Shaynee says she’ll be a permanent fixture at Mt Dare for the foreseeable future.
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