Royal Hotel Tiaro

After retrieving all Tour members from the beer/murder tunnel in Murgon and a night in Gympie, it was time to move on to the Royal Hotel Tiaro, and with it, the 100 mark on the Royal Tour!

It seems a bit ridiculous that John and I have made it this far on what was a boozy banter combined with ambitious, indeterminate, and ultimately unlikely plans. But unlike most boozy whims, we actually followed through on this one. Starting way back with Royal #1 in Adelong 3 ½ years ago. Since then we’ve rolled through 99 more Royals. There have been highs (Mandurama, Horsham, St Arnaud, and the rest of the Top 10), lows (ahem, Granville), and the incredibly average (I’m looking at you Carlton).

We’ve had a staggering total of 25 people making guest appearances on the Tour with Bert and Anthony leading the way with (29 and 28 Royals respectively). We’ve hit Royals across 4 states so far (we haven’t made it over to WA yet, and Tassie, the NT, and the ACT let us down by not having any Royals at all). And we’ve been to every Royal Hotel in South Australia and Victoria. And we’ve racked up some truly staggering travel stats that I will save for a future post.

But as much as hitting the century is a natural cause for a bit of a retrospective, this post is actually about the venue for our hundredth Royal, the Royal Hotel Tiaro. Tiaro (pronounced Tie-Roh) is a small town between Gympie and Bundaberg on the way up the Queensland coast. The Royal itself doesn’t look like overly ornate or overly Queensland-y like the Royals in Yarraman and Murgon that we’d hit so far on the trip. It’s one-story pub right on the highway running through town.

But despite the fairly generic exterior, the inside was welcoming and comfortable and certainly not as bland as some of the pubs we’ve been to. The big murals on the wall depicting local history and industry gave the place a good vibe. There was also a good deck outside. And it’s the kind of place that you could easily imagine going off on a summer evening regardless of the small town size. We were indeed there in the summer, but on a weekday morning, so the vibe consisted largely of us.

We grabbed ourselves some beers and settled in at the barrel tables in front of the bar. As you might guess, there was much celebration and cricket-themed commemorations to mark the momentous occasion. There was a lot of reflection on the trip thus far as well (that was largely similar to the first couple of paragraphs of this post). And as goofy as a lot of it was, it’s still pretty cool (and silly and ridiculous) that we’ve made it this far and have been to 100 pubs across the country on the sole basis that they are called the Royal Hotel.

The Royal Hotel Tiaro was a good one to hit the milestone on. It was also good to have the biggest crew to date with us to tick over the hundred.  Tiaro is a good, comfortable, but still fairly basic pub. The bottleshop also served as a bit of a general store for the town as well. There was a steady stream of customers coming through despite the early hour. Want a box of Fruity Lexia with your laundry detergent? No problem at all at the Royal Hotel Tiaro.

But the best part of the pub is what makes a lot of our favourite Royals stand out: a good barman. The barman at Tiaro was all to happy to have a chat, was interested in the whole Royal Tour, was happy to take a few photos, and, most importantly, wasn’t in the slightest bit bothered that 8 randoms rolled in on his (presumably) usually quiet morning at 10am.

It’s definitely not the best pub we’ve been to on the Tour. It probably won’t make the Top 10 either. But the Royal Hotel Tiaro is still a very good pub. And I dare say that if you lived in Tiaro, you’d be pretty happy to have that as your local.

Royal Stats

• Town/Suburb: Tiaro, QLD
• Population: 778
• Date Visited: Friday, February 6, 2026
• Visited By: Cory, John, Bert, Turner, Big Al, Cam, Jon, and Bull
• Beer Sponsorship on Sign: Great Northern
• Beer Consumed at Pub: VB
• Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $9.00
• Unique Award: Royal #100!!!
• Tour Progress: 74.6% (100/134)