Cattle Camp Hotel

My friends and I came to Cattle Camp to work and complete our 88 days for our visas. We stayed for one week before leaving. The man that currently owns this motel is the most arrogant and rudest person I’ve ever met. He spoke to us like we were stupid and belittled us in front of customers. He is notoriously known in the town for how unpleasant and nasty he is. We of course had read the reviews before arriving but thought how bad could it be. Please if you’re thinking of working here, don’t - it’s not worth it. He has been through 10+ backpackers in the past month alone, and probably has had 1000s of staff throughout the years and has not been able to keep a single person. And if you’re thinking of staying as a customer, the place is filthy and there are a lot more nicer and more deserving places in the town.

My husband and I frequently travel through Outback Queensland and we stopped for a night in Charleville. We booked one night at the Cattle Camp Hotel and spoke to the very friendly and helpful Karen over the phone. Normally we read the reviews first but made the mistake and read them after we booked. All the reviews were bad, bad,bad but we decided to go in have a drink and check it out for ourselves. The minute we opened the door to the public bar and hadn’t even stepped into the bar we were greeted by Tahlia the barmaid with a big smile and hello which made us feel welcome and comfortable immediately. The two fellas sitting at the bar also greeted us and we soon worked out one of them was the infamous publican. After a few drinks we decided to go for a feed at the Corones Hotel. Big mistake! The drinks were expensive and it was the worst food ever so hightailed it back to the Cattle Camp. Ended up having a great chat with the publican who was nothing like the reviews make him out to be. Sure he would be a hard taskmaster with his staff and Im sure wouldnt suffer fools lightly. As we left the bar he gave me a stubbie cooler as a gift. All in all a great cosy pub with great big clean and reasonably priced rooms. We understand there will be a new owner taking over soon and hopefully Tahlia will stay on as she is a great asset to the pub.Will definitely stay here again on our way through. Don’t listen to the other reviews and find out for yourselves, it’s a great pub.

Stopped into the attached bottle shop and asked if they were open fir dinner. The response was quite terse stating no dinner, no staff - thats why I am working. I realise getting staff in country locations is difficult and we would genuinely have come back for dinner as that is what we do when travelling. It is tough out there but through no fault of the travellers.