‘There’s rumble back in Mingela’: Kelsey bought a pub and saved her tiny town from extinction
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Exclusive: Kelsey Brown’s decision to buy her country town’s only pub began as a half-hearted joke.
The 20-year-old couldn’t even legally drink yet when she first eyed the Mingela Hotel, a beloved watering hole in the tiny town of Mingela in north Queensland.
Kelsey Brown bought the Mingela Hotel in Queensland. Kelsey Brown
Brown told nine.com.au that joke became a serious business proposition when the previous longtime owner fell ill and the pub was at risk of being permanently shut.
“At first it was a joke between like the family and my mates. I was like, ‘I’ll buy that one day’,” Brown said.
“And then when I turned 18, I decided, ‘No, I’m actually going to buy it’.”
It remained closed for 12 months before Brown could dust off the beer taps and welcome patrons back.
At the tender age of 20, the former truck driver stepped in and revived the Mingela Hotel from near extinction.
She applied for a loan, took over the licence, renovated the interior and officially reopened her favourite country pub in June this year.
Brown said she couldn’t bear to see the Mingela Hotel go dark.
It first opened on the Flinders Highway in 1894 as the North Australian Hotel and was renamed after the town in the 1980s.
“It’s such a well-known place, it’s a building full of memories,” Brown said.
“The number of people who walk in there and their face just lights up... and they say, ‘I haven’t been here in 50 years, or I had my first beer here 50 years ago’.”
Brown pictured with Mingela Hotel’s previous owner Moana. Facebook
Brown attended school in Townsville and moved to Mingela in 2023.
The town has a population of just 20 people – including Brown, her parents and her poppy.
Located about 90 kilometres from Townsville, residents need to embark on a two-hour round trip just to buy groceries.
“It’s quiet, very peaceful town,” Brown explained.
“We have three streets and one of them is a dirt road.
“I have the only business in town.”
The Mingela Hotel is back and open for business. Kelsey Brown
Mingela wasn’t always so small.
It may be a tiny dot on the map in Australia’s second-largest state, but the 19th century gold rush once attracted hundreds of prospectors and their families.
Over time, residents departed for neighbouring towns and the general store, police station and school shut down.
The Mingela Hotel is the only establishment that keeps the town’s heart beating.
Brown is modest – but it is clear the first month has been a roaring success.
It is now operating seven days a week from 10am and patrons are now lining up before the doors swing open.
“The first day we opened, I think we did around 250 lunches, on the first Sunday we had 300 more,” she said.
“The support has been overwhelming, it’s just been unreal.
“I’ve had people driving from other towns to just come out for lunch and bloody congratulate me.”
The majority of the pub’s clientele has long been bikers passing through.
However, Brown has transformed Mingela Hotel into a tourist hotspot for grey nomads, truck drivers and locals making the trek from Townsville and Charters Towers.
The small but mighty population have Brown to thank for bringing the “light” back to Mingela.
“Everyone has told me, ‘There’s rumble back in Mingela’,” she said.
“The town’s alive, the whole place just lights up.”
The Mingela Hotel’s official grand opening will take place on August 1.
Brown’s plan is to hold monthly events and bring customers from all over Australia to see the little pub that could.
“It’s just been incredible,” she added.
“People in the last three weeks have already come back so many times, I feel like I’ve known them all my whole life.”
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