Publican Terry Osborne and his wife Kate bought the Millaa Millaa Hotel Motel because they wanted a "proper pub". Watch our audio slideshow and meet the characters 

No pokies, no Keno, no TAB – a place with atmosphere, the hub of the community.

"We wanted a proper old pub," said 62-year-old Mr Osborne, who has been in the hotel trade 30 years.

"And that is what this is."

Proper it may be, but the Millaa Millaa has had its share of eccentrics indulging in a little less-than-proper behaviour.

"Over the years there have been lots of characters,’’ said Mr Osborne.

"One in particular was a local farmer called Joe Daley,’’ he recalled.

‘‘He was an icon around town.

"Joe had lost a leg and had a wooden one in its place.

"Every evening after finishing milking he used to come into the pub covered in cow dung.

"He used to take his wooden leg off and throw it in the corner of the bar.

"And if you got in the way, so be it," said Mr Osborne.

Joe has passed on but stories about him live on.

Built in 1921, 10 years after the founding of the town, the original hotel – a grand, imposing, graceful two-storey wooden building – burned down in 1998 due to an electrical fault.

Pictures of the old hotel cover the walls.

There is also one of the fire, hidden round a corner out of public view, because of publicans’ "superstition".

The hotel was rebuilt in its present form, a single storey structure with a motel at the back.

Barmaid Christine Walker, 51, watched the old building razed to the ground.

"It was very sad – lots of history went with the pub," she said.

Sybbie Nucifora, 56, former vice president of Tennis Queensland and a former board member of Tennis Australia, said the old pub was a "magnificent" wooden structure with a maple and oak interior.

And while the new building may not have the charm of the old place, it does not lack for
atmosphere.

When The Cairns Post dropped in this week, regulars were engaged in their daily round of good-natured banter, baiting and teasing.

"There are always a few pranks," said Mr Nucifora, who has a tea plantation and cattle-fattening outfit at East Palmerston.

Mr Nucifora said that the meals at the hotel were
"fantastic".

So much so that he timed delivery of tea to the factory at Malanda so that he could stop for lunch at the Millaa Millaa hotel.

Selwyn Bimrose, 52 – who admits to drinking at the pub when he was 15 – recalls the juke box and the dancing in the past.

The old pub was gone, but the atmosphere remains.

As 77-year-old expatriate American, Gene Cox, said: "There is a certain
camaraderie.

"I think a pub is what you make it."

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