As heard on the Gold Coast's 102.9FM Hot Tomato

Those of you who live on the Gold Coast or Brisbane may have heard us on the radio waves this week, with Paul Burt from 102.9FM Hot Tomato ringing up for a bit of Lions Den Hotel goss. Paul was more than happy to hear about the old pub, the characters who drink here and the friendly faces we see passing through. Maybe we can hope to see Paul Burt and his radio friends up this way sometime soon to see the place in person. Thanks Paul and now you guys on the Gold coast have no excuse!

 

Melbourne Cup Day in Far North Queensland

Although the interior of the Lions Den Hotel bares little resemblance to the inner circle of Flemington race course, the “race that stops a nation” certainly did that on Tuesday. Melbourne Cup day saw some fine tropical fashions and some intriguing head ware as well as some fierce competition for the race sweep. Jack pulled out a double whammy drawing out Melbourne Cup 2010 winner ‘Americain’ in both the $5 and the $10 sweep (investigations are still underway.....????) but most losers were made happy when Jack threw it all back on the bar to help celebrate the day....aahhhh. Our visitors from Sweden, Holland and Mexico also got the chance to see that Aussies really don’t need much of an excuse to get dressed up and celebrate! Check out the Photo Gallery for more Melbourne Cup day pics

 

NRL Grand Final

The NRL grand final brought in the footy fans again on Sunday, this time to see the Roosters take on the Dragons. Lions Den regular Jim brought his own rooster to the party to help cheer on the Sydney side.......It seems having a large bird doesn’t always help your team win...congratulations Dragons!

 

 

AFL Grandfinal Draw!!

Well it looks like the AFL have hit the jackpot! A game SO big, it now takes 2 weekends to get a result....what the??? Well people from all over converged on the Lions Den to watch St Kilda clash with Collingwood in the AFL’s 2010 Grand final last Saturday. Despite being the weekend of the nearby Wallaby Creek Festival it seems that when you need to watch you just need to watch. It was a lively crowd with a good mix of supporters waiting anxiously to see if St Kilda could overcome the much loved and much hated Collingwood. Despite Collingwood looking like running away with the game in the first quarter, St Kilda fought back until it became a point for point contest. Unbelievably as the final siren sounded it was a Collingwood/ Stkilda draw!!! Now you know what that means? We HAVE to all come back here next Saturday to have a few icy cold beers and see the two teams clash again..........poor us!!

 

Faith Nulley

 

LIONS DEN HOTEL

 

Ph:   (07) 4060 3911

Fax: (07) 40603958

www.lionsdenhotel.com.au

 

Grant Denyer and the 'Sunrise' crew discover the Den!

Television up here in the north is like mail delivery in the wet season...sometimes you’re gunna get it and sometimes you’re just not. Channel 7’s television show ’Sunrise’ decided that it would be a good challenge (not to mention a good watch) for their golden boy Grant Denyer to take the average aussie out of their city lounge room on an exciting journey to the far north.....the very far north, Cape York!. Much to our pleasure the Sunrise mob decided to call our humble pub home for the night and show case to the world our little slice of paradise not to mention give us a good laugh and an excuse to stay up late. As many of you may know the crew was meant to arrive here on Monday night but after a mass of unseasonal rain they were delayed by Cooper Creek near Cow Bay, after a bus and a car got washed off the causeway.....that was meant to be the easy end of the Bloomfield Track, what was going on??? Next day they amazingly (for  August) got stuck again at the Bloomfield River near Wajul Wajul where they waited for six hours for the waters to recede enough for them to cross. A very weary star and crew arrived here around 7pm Tuesday night and were quickly filled up with hot pizzas and cold beers.

Our late night suddenly became a very early morning with us cracking open the doors to the pub at 4.50am so the cameraman and his satellite crew could get setup, ready for their live feed into the Sydney studio at 6am. As scheduled Grant did a live cross every half an hour from various location around the pub and even had a chat with the local kids in the school bus on their way to school at Rossville. All up the Sunrise crew were a pleasure to have and we congratulate them on completing their trek to the top of Cape York with their satellite gear so others could share their experience. Hope to see them back this way again soon!

 

Faith – Visit the photo gallery to see more pics of the Sunrise visit.

WIN WALLABY CREEK FESTIVAL TICKETS!!!!!!

 WIN!

By staying at the Lions Den during the month of August.....You can have the chance to win a double 3 day pass to the spectacular Wallaby Creek Festival in Rossville valued at $170 (September24-26) simply by staying overnight at the Lions Den Hotel during August and entering your name and address into the draw at the bar. The winner will be entitled to a fully transferable double weekend pass to the three day festival situated at ‘Homerule’ in Rossville, just 7km from the Den. The Wallaby Creek Festival features live music, workshops, arts, children’s festival, indigenous culture, bush poetry and more. A true celebration of music and arts in the rainforest! For more information visit www.wallabycreekfestival.org.au or phone (07) 4069 5871 or 4060 3112

State of Origin - Will it be a Qld clean sweep?

Tonight is the third and final match in the much anticipated State of Origin clash between Qld and NSW. Given that Queensland has ‘flogged’ NSW in each of their previous encounters, it is not unlikely that there will be plenty of blue flags trampled under the feet of many tonight. As you can see,  the staff and the locals are just as capable as any city footy crowd when it comes to turning it on and having a good time! GO MAROONS!!!

 

 

JUNE LONG WEEKEND

The long weekend was a huge success with fabulous weather and sensational music that just kept on coming. Friday night we were wowed by the experimental and exciting sounds of Moondogs Gypsy Blues Band, a duo of exceptional rhythm and soul moving blues. No strangers to the Den, Kate and Moondog brought cruisey blues sounds to the laid back crowd with many pitching tents and settling in for a long weekend of good music. Saturday saw the arrival of the fresh faced boys from Dubble D Infinitee that impressed everyone with their strong vocals, dynamic originals and unique take on alternative classics. Their confidence and professionalism proved they are a young and upcoming band to watch.

Saturday night saw a huge line up with the Barefoot Belles kicking things off with their strong girl rock, closely followed by the Hillbilly Goats and friends who packed out the stage with their hillbilly sounds. Our  very own ‘Boney Goat’ aka Jack Ryle sported a new set of horns for is bone slapping solos and their fill in drummer and guitarist only seemed to boost the energy of this dynamic band.

Two French backpackers and buskers (kindly given the nicknames of ‘paddy and melon’ by friendly locals) gave an amazing display of their musical prowess by first playing high tempo Irish music for the crowd and later on Sunday’s open mic an artful account of traditional French music. It was an unexpected cultural injection into the Lions Den community, performed to a very appreciative crowd. After the goats on Saturday night came the well loved Roadtrippers who have no difficulty in keeping a crowd dancing. With the Roadtrippers and the Toadrippers at the helm the night was never going to be an early one!

Sunday saw the Hillbilly goats take to the stage again, with time-out for a traditional “Cane Toad Race” that allowed many people to share in the mayhem of this very Far North Queensland tradition. A dairy farmer from Gippsland in Victoria, Natalie White, the only girl in the field, showed all the boys how it was done by winning the race with the help of her toad “Hop a-long Cassatoad”. Nat kindly donated all her winnings of $290 to the Rossville Fire Brigade.....Good On you Nat!

Finally as the sun went down, the Lions Den microphone was thrown open to all those brave souls who had more music to offer. Local talents included young Albert who showed he has definitely got his father Gav’s musical talents, as well as the well loved singing cowboy Steve from north of Cooktown. Also plucking the strings was publican Max, Cairns local Carl and of course the unusual talents of the French boys Paddy and Melon.

 

All in all it was a wonderful weekend with a fantastic atmosphere made possible by the great crowd, filled with inquisitive and interesting visitors and the ever supportive locals. Thanks everyone for making it a magnificent time for all and we’ll see you back here next year!!!!!!

A big thank you must go to our FABULOUS staff who jumped straight in at the deep end and made this weekend possible. Thanks for your commitment and your positive attitudes, we could not have done it without you. Special thanks also to friend and neighbour Gavin Dear for all your untiring passion, support and dedication to the music... THANKYOU! To our wonderful Kerry and also to the always positive John, Nat and Sally, we definitely could not have managed without you...and that is the truth. Thank you all so much!

Faith & Max  

 

 

Roadtrippers Anniversary Show

The Roadtrippers - ‘100 Smoke to Kununurra’ anniversary show was a big success, with plenty of visitors from out of town coming to join the party. A high energy show with all the favourites as well as an alien inspired set from the roadtripper’s alter ego the ‘Toadrippers’ meant the action just kept going and going. Gav, Lee, Pando, Screamer and special guest Jack played for Lee’s final gig before hitting the road for Western Australia. Look out for the Roadtrippers over the June Queens Birthday long weekend, playing along with four other bands and various musical friends at the Lions Den Hotel’s massive 3 days of Music!

Going skywards!

What promised to be a usual Saturday afternoon suddenly turned unusual last week when a visiting helicopter pilot treated pub owner Faith and two long time employees, Ali and Mark, to a heart pounding flight in his chopper and a chance to see our amazing home from the air. To see the Lions Den Hotel, the Lt Annan River, Black Mountain, the Annan Gorge and all its’ waterfalls was a special glimpse into the hidden beauty of this area. Fortunately, in between clinging to our seat belts and overcoming the feeling that we were about to fall out the open doors, we managed to take some great photos and a few snippets of video to share with you. So check out the you tube link below for a chopper eye view of the Little Annan River behind the Lions Den Hotel.........yeeeee haaaaaaa!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=371oRy2xtYs

Late Wet Season

Just when we thought it was going to be a dry wet season, the last three weeks have proven that mother nature had no such intention. With the low pressure system over the gulf from ex-cyclone Paul we coped a huge amount of rain to take us back up to nearly our average yearly rainfall in just over a month. It’s been a good soaking with the Lt Annan River coming up into the campground behind the pub and both Mungumby Creek and Wallaby Creek flowing well over the top of their respective bridges. The place is looking greener than green and having both the Bloomfield Track and the Mulligan Hwy cut off a different times over a few days made it exciting times for those Easter travellers.

No one seemed to mind, and at least if you have to get stranded it may as well be on the side of the river that has the pub!!!!!!!

 

Faith

Brains put to the test

Last Saturday night was the first ever Lions Den Trivia Night, that saw locals putting on their thinking caps and battling it out for the cash prize and the title of Trivia Master!!!! Teams of four tackled 10 rounds of 10 questions with winners and losers along the way given some cold beverages to keep the spirits high. A few quiet geniuses were discovered and after an extremely tight race to the finish one team was crowned the victors, happy to take home their new title. One does wonder however what the true colour of a stick of rock is???????.....apparently the answer is pink....Go figure!

 

 

From Helenvale to Canada

Aussie motorbike tour guide and friend of the Den, Steve Lovelock, recently sent us this picture of himself and his beloved Lions Den Hotel t-shirt, overlooking Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park, Canada. Steve said his trusty Den shirt “was keeping the back warm” while he worked away near these magnificent mountains. Great to see that a bush pub from the tropics is being remembered so far from home.....Good luck Steve

 

Join 'Friends of the Lions Den'

To share your pictures, follow posts and read comments from visitors and workers at the Lions Den Hotel, join the group ‘Friends of the Lions Den’ on Facebook at www.facebook.com

 

 

 

 

A New Year Tree Tragedy

Just as the dust was starting to settle after the New Year’s Eve celebrations (or should I say water receding after our early morning New Year’s day drenching) the new year was marred by the uprooting of one of the Lions Den’s most admired and recognised trees. A beautiful red flowering Poinciana estimated to be between 40-50 years old, this iconic tree was a favourite with, owners, locals, campers and nature lovers alike. It is a terrible tragedy and this beautiful old tree will be sadly missed..................please, no need to send flowers.

 

Christmas Eve with many Santas

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL! The Den was a haven for good cheer and Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, with locals getting into the Christmas spirit by blowing the froth off a few XXXXs. Carols by Candlelight chirped away merrily in the background, fruit cake and caramels were handed around, and it seemed all you needed was a Santa hat to make all your dreams come true. English backpacker Ali wasn’t quite convinced Col was the real Santa, but we all went along with it anyway. Just goes to show all you need at Christmas is good friends, good beer and good cheer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here, here

NEW YEARS EVE!!!!!!

See more of the fun from New Years in our photo gallery

 

New Years Eve at the Lions Den Hotel this year was always going to be a big one........

The anticipation of welcoming in 2010 and the lure of one of Queensland’s best pub bands ‘Black Image’, meant there was a staggering number of party goers travelling from stations, communities and towns far and wide to help welcome in the New Year. The opportunity to celebrate in a family friendly environment was a huge drawcard, the playground and the campground being utilized by families of all ages.  Free camping was offered at the Lions Den campground for those who wanted to stay over, with many staying with their dogs and kids to make a weekend of it.

The long tradition of people coming together at the Lions Den Hotel for over one hundred years rang true again on New Years, with a diverse range of visitors and locals all happily rubbing shoulders, linking arms and cheering on together. The boys from ‘Black Image’ played their hearts out, with only two small breaks and of course a support set by the infamous Road Trippers, and other talented locals. Surprisingly the rain (which threatened to dampen the show) held off conveniently until we started shutting the bar.......gotta love nature! I must thank all the Lions Den Hotel staff who worked so tirelessly over those 12-15 hours and of course Black Image, Roadtrippers and all their crews that made the great sound possible. Special thanks have to go to ma and pa Lynch for everything, and for all those great party goers who made NEW YEARS 2010 really something to remember...cheers!!!!

Faith

 

*Send us your pics of New Year at the Den