Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 23:33
Something I penned for a magazine.I think copyright might apply.
Keith
Dave Cox, Mt Dare’s Hotelier
The
Simpson Desert is Australia’s fourth largest and the contains the world’s longest parallel sand dunes. It spans the
corner country, stretching across the north-east corner of South Australia into Queensland and sweeping
well into the Northern Territory. The trek across the Simpson has become one of Australia’s iconic outback adventures.
Sitting on the south western corner of the mighty Simpson is the Mt Dare Hotel, run for the past 13 years by Dave Cox.
There’s no actual mountain at Mt Dare and the word “hotel” is something of a misnomer as
well, because this is a fuel stop, a mechanical workshop, a spare parts and accessories store, a restaurant, a retail store, satphone rental business, a
camp ground, a caravan park, a desert rescue service and, of course, a hotel. Running a business like this demands a very wide skill set.
“I first saw the place in 2002 when was traveling through the outback with my girlfriend,” said Dave. “The Indigenous Land Corporation had acquired the place two years earlier. As a business, it was between a
rock and a hard place. It needed a whole lot of work and investment and they were tossing up whether to close it down.”
Dave is a qualified electrician with some mechanical and building skills, but had no prior retail or hospitality experience. But he took over the running of the place and bought the business a year later. He has since added guest cabins, outbuildings and a new building which houses the bar, a commercial kitchen, restaurant seating, retail area plus storage and office space.
Mt Dare Hotel is located half a day’s drive from
Alice Springs and can be isolated when the floods come through. In February 2011 the levy wall that surrounds the property was overtopped by a freak flood and the place was inundated with brick-red water. In normal seasons, six months without a drop of rain is common.
“It’s a very seasonal business,” said Dave. “In June each year the Finke Desert Desert Race brings about a hundred cars and a hundred bikes a day. And they all need to fill up with fuel and most need to be fed. Right now, we’re seeing about fifty vehicles a day which will drop to almost nothing during the summer months when the desert tracks are closed for safety reasons.
“Our customers are always very friendly,
well behaved and like to hang around for a chat. We have none of the problems that you hear about with city pubs.
“Our fuel comes up from
Adelaide and we take a full tanker load of diesel at a time, which usually lasts us about three weeks. For other provisions, I take the truck up to
Alice Springs once every few weeks, which is a two day round trip.”
With the arrival of modern airconditioned four wheel drives, desert treking has become very popular, and the three or four day journey between Mt Dare and
Birdsville is one of Australia’s iconic desert adventures, where a satellite telephone or radio communication are essential.
“Most desert recoveries or repairs on the track require an overnight stay,” said Dave. “Breakdowns can sometimes be repaired on the track using spares that we carry. Other times I’ll need to tow vehicles back here and order parts from Alice or
Adelaide, or organise a further tow to
Alice Springs. I also occasionally have to retrieve broken trailers which can’t be left out on the track.”
After thirteen years as Mt Dare’s outback publican,
cook, servo, mechanic and outback rescuer, Dave Cox has sold the business to Graham and Sandra Scott, who will run the place with their son Tony, his wife Michelle and their four children aged seven to fourteen.
“We’re as excited as we are terrified,” Graham Scott said. “We’ve done a lot of outback travel and were farming for forty-five years, so the mechanical side of things is no problem for us. The hospitality side of things will be a fair challenge. Right now, we can’t do exactly what Dave has been doing. But we hope to get somewhere up to Dave’s standard after we settle in.”
“We’re off to
Alice Springs next week to pick up a bunch of computers so that the kids can begin with the School of the Air, or the ‘School of the Internet’ as it should be called these days. Tony and Michelle are as excited as their kids, who see this as the adventure of a lifetime.”
Dave Cox will join his wife and children in
Melbourne and will operate a family business manufacturing concrete sleepers. Dave Cox will be remembered as one of the true characters of the Australian outback.
Please join me in wishing the Scott family
well.
Keith
AnswerID:
557089
Follow Up By: Member-George (WA) - Friday, Jul 17, 2015 at 00:33
Friday, Jul 17, 2015 at 00:33
Sad to David and Melissa have sold up. We have fond memories of Mt Dare, we were stuck there for 7 days waiting for the tracks to open after the rain. During that time David and Melissa were terrific hosts, we had dinner at the
homestead every night and almost drank the bar dry. There was no hotel at that time. When the track sort of dried out enough we gave David a lift to New Crown Stn to pick up his ute with a fridge on the back. He had to leave it at New Crown when on his way back from
Alice Springs, due to the tracks being flooded. This was all about 10 yrs ago.
We wish David the best of luck with his new venture in
Melbourne.
We also look forward to meet the new owners, Graham and Sandra. I'm sure they have a lot of work in front of them. I wish them also the best of luck.
FollowupID:
843407
Follow Up By: Member - Howard (ACT) - Friday, Jul 17, 2015 at 11:40
Friday, Jul 17, 2015 at 11:40
Thanks for the info Keith,
I do wish the new owners the best in their new venture.
I will make sure I meet the new owners on my next trip at the end of september on the way to the
Simpson Desert Bike challenge.
regards
Howard
FollowupID:
843412