Royal Hotel Yarraman
And we’re back! After a months long break, it was finally time to hit the road again and get back on the Royal Tour! It seems like forever ago since we had our last Royal beer way back in Armidale. But we hit the road once again, heading back to Queensland and the Royal Hotel Yarraman.
This leg of the Tour had a record number of participants with a grand total of 8! Joining John and I on this leg was Tour veteran Bert as well as tour Debutants and my mates Cam and Jon. Also joining us once again were Turner and Big Al (of Casino and Tenterfield fame), along with their mate and also Tour debutant Bull.
After flying up to the Sunshine Coast we headed west for a couple of hours towards the Royal Hotel Yarraman. With our numbers on this leg we were also in two cars for the very first time. Which did lead to a bit more of a herding-of-cats element to this leg. But we were still united in the singular purpose of Royal Hotels.
It was early afternoon when we finally arrived at the Royal Hotel Yarraman. And it was a somewhat surprisingly busy place for a random Thursday arvo. This was our second foray into Queensland on the Tour and this pub was very much the quintessential Queensland-type pub. No-nonsense exterior with a prominent upstairs veranda and a XXXX sign out the front.
Inside, it had a distinctly 80’s era decor, especially in the bistro towards the back. Although, to be fair, it was a well-kept 80’s era decor. There’s just something about the signage, the faux-wood panelling, and the yellow-tinted light filtering in.
The front of the pub was pretty evenly split between the TAB area and the classic tall-table front bar. And the front bar did have some cool stuff in it. It was adorned with a painting for the Royal above the bar (apparently depicting it from before the days that there was a Yarraman surrounding it). There was also some cool bespoke Royal lighting and signage on the front of the bar. And any reader of the blog knows very well how much we like us some bespoke Royal signage.
But best of all, this Royal also had its own beer: the Royal Lager. It was only 3.5% but it was also $5 a schooner. So on a hot February arvo, it was perfect.
So with a couple of schooners of Royal Lager in hand, we grabbed a table in the front bar, ordered up some lunch, and settled in to wait for the second carload to arrive. The other car had apparently become irretrievably overcome with hunger 14km short of the first Royal of the trip and stopped for lunch in the (very) nearby town of Blackbutt.
But it was their loss as the food that came out for lunch was really good and even more massive. As we were getting stuck into our sizeable lunches, we did notice something curious about the sporting memorabilia displayed on the wall. At first glance, it didn’t necessarily stick out. Just another framed jersey like you’d find in hundreds of pubs. But this one was a New South Wales Blues jersey in the heart of country Queensland.
This was indeed a mystery worthy of pondering. So we decided it would be best to have another couple of schooners and try to puzzle it out. Our best guess is that it was from a year the Maroons belted NSW and it was purchased and displayed ironically. But as none of us could actually read the year on the jersey it is a mystery that will endure.
Eventually we’d worked our way through our burgers and our schooners and it was time to get back on the road for our next Queensland Royal. Overall, the Royal Hotel Yarraman was pretty decent. Not amazing, slightly dated, but still pretty good. I wouldn’t hesitate to stop back in if I was passing through again.
Royal Stats
- Town/Suburb: Yarraman, QLD
- Population: 1,127
- Date Visited: Thursday, February 5, 2026
- Visited By: Cory, John, Bert, Turner, Big Al, Cam, Jon, and Bull
- Beer Sponsorship on Sign: XXXX
- Beer Consumed at Pub: Royal Lager
- Price of Schooner of Said Beer: $5.00
- Unique Award: Most Unexpected Piece of Sporting Memorabilia
- Tour Progress: 73.1% (98/134)
- It was at this pub that we discovered that the Royal Hotel Gympie was no longer open as a pub (it’s now accommodation only). We have therefore removed it from the total