Royal Hotel Leyburn
After finishing off all of the Royals in Victoria with Koo Wee Rup, it was time for our first foray into Queensland with the Royal Hotel Leyburn.
We were joined on this leg of the Tour by veteran of the Parkes leg and noted Fireball afficionado Bert. Bert and I arrived into Brisbane a bit before John who had a bit of a kerfuffle with his flight (and by kerfuffle I mean 5 hour delay). But at least that gave us time to collect our spontaneously upgraded hire car. And once John finally landed, we were finally on our way west out of Brisbane. After dodging kangaroos for the final 30km, we eventually arrived at the small country Queensland town of Leyburn.
The Royal Hotel Leyburn is about as classic of a country pub as you can get. All timber and brick and clearly the hub of the town. Just a good, legitimate, proper country pub.
That upgraded hire car I mentioned earlier happened to be perhaps the wankiest vehicle ever produced. So much so that it projected Mercedes logos from the side mirrors onto the ground when you opened the doors. Needless to say, we made sure to shut the doors as quickly as possible so as to maintain our credibility at this proper Queensland country pub.
Eventually, we made it into the pub. And the inside was everything that you’d expect after seeing the outside. Off to the left was the bistro area which was an extremely popular place on a Thursday night. To the right was the front bar area with a pool table, several tables, and a solid lineup of locals on stools at the bar. And if you picture the type of local you’d expect in a country Queensland Royal, you are correct, that’s exactly what they looked like.
We found ourselves a table and, it being Queensland, got ourselves a round of XXXX Bitters and settled in. It really was a good pub. There was some cool stuff about it as well. Apparently notably neckless rugby league great Shane Webcke grew up and played his junior footy around Leyburn.
And in August, Leyburn hosts the Historic Leyburn Sprints drag races. It’s not hard to imagine the town absolutely going off when the crowd rolls in for that event.
Shortly we ordered up some dinner. Bert and I got some impressive steaks and John got…. a salad. A boy did he ever hear about it.
Especially when he started picking the chicken out of the salad. And to be fair, I did order the salad for John explicitly without chicken. I can only guess that the kitchen staff assumed that was a mistake when the order came through.
The table of two local older couples behind us got properly stuck into him. First one of the ladies noticed the sumo wrestler on the back of the shirt he foolishly wore (‘The bloke on his shirt is wearing a nappy!’). And once that had attracted their attention, it wasn’t long before they notice the difference between what Bert and I were having and what John was having. Poor John was called all manner of derogatory herbivore-based insults. All in jest and good fun, but it was pretty relentless. Good natured, but relentless
In the face of that onslaught, John quickly finished his rabbit food and we moved on to another round of XXXX and the pool table. John, under the guidance of an 8-year old local, eventually emerged victorious and redeemed himself to some degree for his salad order.
All in all it was a really good night. I’ve said often that we could’ve settle in for the night at a pub. Lucky for us, this was one where we were actually able to do just that.
The Royal Hotel Leyburn had everything you want from a country Royal. It had tons of character and a great cast of locals. It had unique local celebrity and event connections. And it was the perfect place to start our Royal Queensland journey.
Royal Stats
- Town/Suburb: Leyburn, QLD
- Population: 566
- Date Visited: Thursday, April 3, 2025
- Visited By: Cory, John and Bert
- Beer Sponsorship on Sign: XXXX
- Beer Consumed at Pub: XXXX Bitter
- Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $7.90
- Unique Award: Harshest Royal for a Vegetarian
- Tour Progress: 62.2% (84/135)
- In planning for future trips, we have discovered that the Royals in Townsville, Wee Waa, and Brewarrina have now unfortunately closed with no indication of potential re-opening. We have adjusted the overall total to reflect this