Updated
A remote roadhouse almost three hours drive from the
nearest town is home to a fire twirler, a fire breather and a ukulele
player.
Hell's Gate Roadhouse is located on the Savannah Way,
which is a 3,700-kilometre route across the top of Australia, stretching
from Cairns to Broome.
Photo:
The Hell's Gate Roadhouse is a welcome stop on the dusty and remote Savannah Way. (ABC North West Queensland: Jennifer King)
Parts of the road are unsealed and hazards such as slow-to-lift wedge-tailed eagles feasting on roadkill make it a challenging drive for the road trains and caravans that travel along it.
So when travellers stop at the roadhouse to fuel up, buy food, or to set up camp, some are inclined to just stay there.
The roadhouse, 50km from the Northern Territory/Queensland border, is on Cliffdale Station, owned by the Hays family, who also currently run about 2,000 head of cattle.
"We bought the place two and a half years ago but don't know if we bought the roadhouse and they threw the property in, or vice versa," John Hays said.
"Most businesses up this way live on backpackers. It's very hard to get Australians to come up here to do what they do and they enjoy it once they get here."
Fire twirling master
Mechanic Tim Hick, originally from Tahmoor in south-western Sydney, has returned to the Hell's Gate Roadhouse after discovering it last year on a road trip with his parents and a stint at Kununurra's Zebra Rock Mine."I was doing some fire poi [fire twirling] out in the yard and they said, 'how long are you staying?' and I said 'how long d'you want me to stay?' and I ended up working three months and came back this year," Mr Hick said.
Photo:
Tim Hick entertains guests with fire poi at the roadhouse. (Instagram: Hell's Gate Roadhouse)
"I learnt [poi] at school. Some girls showed me the basics and I went from that," he said."I learnt a bit better and a bit better and they showed me more things and then I progressed to fire and now I entertain here doing it."
Mr Hick said he would stay at the roadhouse for the dry season, heading back home when the rains begin in late November or early December, and would definitely return next year.
"John and Jenny are fantastic people to work for and I'd like to grow with [their business]," he said.
"This place has grown on me now. Just the people who come through; you're always meeting someone different, hearing their stories and it's a great variety of work."
'Adventure finds you'
Andreas Larsson of Sweden and Rees Oliver of Britain initially met in Bundaberg while doing regional work fruit picking, planting, and bucket collecting.They stopped at Hell's Gate Roadhouse to earn some more fuel money and have been there about six weeks where they also entertain the guests.
Mr Larsson breathes fire while Mr Oliver sings Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash while playing the ukulele.
After buying a car, fitting it out with a "huge cabinet of spices and a big, big herb grinder", the pair set off from Cairns with the aim of supplementing their cuisine with bush tucker.
"I was working outside of Cairns so I've seen a lot of the Tablelands there, temperate rainforests and whatnot," Mr Larsson said.
"Basically I felt the urge to start travelling because I've been trapped working for so long.
"I just love how wild it is and the diversity of nature and you're able to find these great camp spots just for yourself where there's no one. Adventure finds you wherever you are; you don't have to have a plan."
Hell's Gate is a very long way from High Wycombe, the town in England where Mr Oliver is from, and his family do not yet seem to have grasped how isolated he is.
"When I write home, they're like, 'Did you not go down to the pub and watch the football?' or something like that," he said.
"The best way to explain it is 'the middle of nowhere', but it is really a little oasis so it's not really 'nowhere', it's somewhere in the middle of nowhere."
'Culture shock' for Germans
German couple Maya Jockheck and Julius Knittel are also a very long way from their home town which is 100km from Frankfurt.They travelled to Hell's Gate Roadhouse 10 days ago after hearing through Facebook that there was work available.
"We had a big culture shock. I mean, we drove a long way out here and there is nothing around here," Ms Jockheck said.
"It's very hard to get your personal belongings, like toothpaste. We ran out of toothpaste after two days and it was very hard to get a new one so it's a culture shock."The couple said they have adjusted to the flies as well as the idea of having to calculate and order food supplies two weeks ahead, but the air strip provided some excitement.
"The post plane arrived today and it was very exciting for me because they had a mail bag and I ran over to the pilot to get the mail and everything was very exciting," Ms Jockheck said.
"It's so nice here. We have green grass and the people are so friendly, the work is fun and you see new faces every day. It's amazing."
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