Royal Hotel Nundah
Editor’s Note: This post was written by John’s old mate, presumably my future mate, and Tour guest Turner. Despite missing out on Beenleigh earlier in the day, he joined us for the Royal Hotel Nundah. This has been slightly edited for length and to reduce the number of references to us as ‘idiots’. So as you read, keep in mind, there have already been many ‘idiot’ references removed. Also, this will be the last post before we depart for our next trip up to the New England region of New South Wales. So there may be a slight break before the next post. But until then, please enjoy the linguistic stylings of Turner. All opinions expressed are solely his. Except where he compliments us. Those bits are pretty much universally agreed upon.
I have never been a fan of monarchies. To me they are archaic, elitist, pointless and a massive waste of money.
However, over the past couple of years I have become a fanboy of Royalists. Specifically, two idiot Royalists who are pointlessly wasting their own money by travelling to random Royal pubs all over the countryside. On 6 April 2025 I managed to finally get in on this nonsense when I joined Weekes, Cory and Bert for a beer at their 91st Royal on the tour.
When Weekes first told me we were meeting at the Royal Hotel Nundah I was nundah wiser, I had never heard of Nundah and I soon learnt that most people who live in Brisbane have never heard of it either. Even Google Maps struggled to get me within a block.
I felt a bit like an American in a World War as I drove an hour up the highway to Brisbane to meet three idiots who had just endured an 1100 kilometre drive around outback Queensland in search of 8 Royal pubs and were waving their coasters around like French white flags.
We rendezvoused (see what I did there?) on a weekend that had seen all of our respective footy teams across both codes lose, which was kind of poetic as 4 losers blew the froth off some cold ones. It was my first jar of 2025 and I must admit it did go down faster than the proverbial $2 hooker. The original pub was built in 1888 when Nundah was developing from a mission to a township. So you could say it was moving on from its boring missionary position, or at least I would have if I was editing the 19th century Nundah newspaper. But we digress.
A bit of Royal History. The 1880s saw a building boom in Australia with the arrival of the railways and the construction of The Royal Mail, and it was for this reason that the pub was built — with the local council deciding that the area had become large enough to support a third pub, the Royal Hotel.
Like all hotels in settlement towns, The Royal Mail played a pivotal role in the growing Nundah township, providing community connection, entertainment and support when things were tough.
The Nundah Royal changed hands a few times during its life before it went through a million dollar makeover in the early 2020s, which means it now looks like most other buildings in Brisbane with a fur coat on the inside and no knickers on the outside.
Some of the older brickwork exists in the bar downstairs. But the rest of the pub is now a place to slap pokies, watch sports on big screens and sing along to musicians on stage. Basically it’s a place to party like it’s 2025. Or in our case, talk shit like it’s every other day since we could speak.
The clientele was typically Brisbane but despite that we still managed to lower the standard.
For me it was great to finally meet Cory, a bloke I had heard so much about. And it was also great to be able to ask questions directly about the Tour rather than having to text Weekes to ask Cory the answer to each of my questions.
The Royal Nundah beer selection was actually quite impressive as far as Queensland pubs go. A lot of places provide only the unenviable binary choice between XXXX Gold and Great Northern. Which is essentially the same as choosing between pashing your mum or your sister.
Nundahless, it was a cameo that was worth the wait. I am now quietly looking forward to joining these random idiots for another random beer at another random Royal in the future. Cheers.
Royal Stats
- Town/Suburb: Nundah, QLD
- Population: 13,098 (suburb)
- Date Visited: Sunday, April 6, 2025
- Visited By: Cory, John, Bert, and Turner
- Beer Sponsorship on Sign: None
- Beer Consumed at Pub: White Rabbit Dark Ale
- Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $10.80
- Unique Award: Royal with the Least Signage
- Tour Progress: 67.4% (91/135)