The William Creek Hotel is arguably the most famous pub in outback South Australia, and it has the decor to prove it: the interior walls and ceiling are covered in business cards, banknotes, and visiting mementos left by travellers over decades. Every flat surface has been colonised. The result is a strange, dense archive of the people who have stopped here while crossing one of the most remote landscapes in Australia.
The pub serves as the social centre of a settlement with 16 permanent residents. It offers cold beer, basic meals, fuel, and accommodation — the essentials for anyone who has been driving the Oodnadatta Track for several hours. The staff are accustomed to travellers arriving looking dusty and slightly dazed. The bar is the place to find out about current road conditions before you continue.
story: "The hotel sits at the dead centre of Anna Creek Station, the largest cattle station in the world at over 30,000 square kilometres — bigger than Belgium. The muster of cattle across that property is one of the last great logistical challenges in Australian pastoral life, conducted largely by helicopter now rather than on horseback."