Royal Hotel Moonta

The second day of our trip through South Australia commenced with a drive from Adelaide out to the Yorke Peninsula and the Royal Hotel Moonta. Fun fact: Moonta is sometimes known as “Little Cornwall” due to its historical copper mining and large numbers of Cornish immigrants.

It was rainy, dreary day when we pulled into Moonta/Little Cornwall. But it could’ve been worse. We found out once we got inside, that the entire peninsula had been without power the night before and they didn’t expect to be open at all that day.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The Royal Hotel Moonta from the outside is a very cool sandstone pub with a great looking veranda. It had a fresh-looking coat of paint on it, but you could still tell that this was a classic Royal. There is definitely something nice about a schmick, fancy Royal like the one we had come from in Torrensville. But these classic country Royals are what we were looking forward to when we first embarked on this ridiculous (but awesome) Tour.

As it was a bit after 10am on a weekday morning when we arrived, there weren’t many other people in the pub. We entered through the bistro side and there wasn’t anyone at all. We found our way around to the front bar where there was at least one other patron: Mullet Man. That’s not my name for him. That’s what he called himself. He had a shirt with it written on it.

Fortunately for us (as we were keen to drink beer), in addition to Mullet Man, there was also a barman over in the front bar. And I really wish I could remember his name, because he was awesome. I can remember that he convinced his wife to name their dog Tess Tickles. But I can’t for the life of me remember his actual name. So for the purposes of this blog, I shall refer to him as Marv.

Marv was a very good barman. He was very supportive and very keen on the idea of the Royal Tour. And he was full of good local info like ‘the other pub in town is haunted’ and ‘there are 13 total pubs between Moonta, Kadina, and Wallaroo and it’s possible, but very difficult, to have a pint in each of them in one afternoon’.

But overall, Marv was just full of good humour and good chat. Which is really what you want when you’re wandering into a pub still firmly in the A.M.’s.

The inside of the pub itself did toe line a bit between feeling a little old and just feeling like a classic pub. But I reckon it probably came down on the side of classic pub. One notable feature was the Operation board game-inspired happy hour sign. I fell fairly confident in declaring it the best happy hour signage we’ve encountered so far on the Tour.

But on the whole, the Royal Hotel Moonta is a good solid Royal. The only thing that really made it stand out was Marv. But that was more than enough to make us wish we could’ve stayed for a couple more. But we had to get back on the road. So we said our goodbyes to Marv and Mullet Man and headed back out into the rain on our way to the next Royal.

P.S. Marv, if you happen to read this, please get in touch and let me know what your real name is and I will more than happily go back and edit this post. And keep up the good work!

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Moonta, SA
• Population: 4,627
• Date Visited: Friday, October 18, 2024
• Visited By: Cory, John, Jordy and Anthony
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: XXXX
• Beer Consumed at Pub: Carlton Draught
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $9.75
• Unique Award: Best Happy Hour Signage
• Tour Progress: 47.5% (66/139)