A grey nomad pair have played a huge role in saving an historic Northern Territory pub from burning to the ground.
The drama started yesterday afternoon when a massive fire broke out next to the Ooraminna Junction Hotel — which was used as the movie set of Ted Egan’s iconic Aussie tale The Drover’s Boy and Warwick Thornton’s film Sweet Country.
According to the Townsville Bulletin, the old pub was minutes away from being completely gutted by fire as flames swept through a film set building nearby.
Ooraminna Station Homestead owner Nicole Lorimer told the Bulletin that the pub, located 35 kilometres south of Alice Springs, was only a few
A still from the film Sweet Country at the Ooraminna Junction Hotel.
metres away … and would have surely been destroyed if grey nomads had not raised the alarm
“A couple of travellers stopped by to camp in the Ooraminna campground, drove up to the homestead and alerted the owners of smoke coming from the film set pub,” she said. “They said that as it was a film set they initially thought that a film was being made but quickly realised the emergency when they noticed no one about.”
Luckily, as well as being spotted early, there was some equipment handy to fight the blaze.
“The owner had a mobile firefighter trailer ready for emergencies and managed to help save the pub with the assistance of the grey nomads until the fire brigade arrived and put the fire out,” said Ms Lorimer. “We are very grateful to the Fire Department and Bushfires NT who attended so quickly to help save the historic Ooraminna Junction Hotel.”
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
