FOR a pub that prides itself on its family atmosphere, the Tully Falls Hotel at Ravenshoe was not always so family oriented - and the evidence is there for all to see. Watch our audio slideshow.

Four decades ago a shooting outside the pub resulted in the bullet ricocheting through the wooden wall of the hotel restaurant and embedding itself almost dead centre of a large painting of the nearby Tully Falls.

Publican Brenden Willmann, 33, who runs the hotel with his wife Selena 27, said they learned of the incident from an elderly couple, who wanted to see where the shooting had taken place.

"An old lady came in with her husband. Their father got shot at from out in the front street back in the 1960s," Mr Willmann said.

He said the bullet hit one of the pillars outside the pub, took a deviation through the wall and ended up in the centre of the painting, which still has a bullet hole in the canvas. Apparently, the shot missed the elderly couple’s relative.

Mr Willmann bought the hotel with his family, who are involved in cattle in Cape York two and a half years ago and does not regret it for a moment.

For Mrs Willmann, who has an association going back many years, owning the pub was a dream come true.

"I worked in the kitchen since I was about 14. I always wanted to own the hotel, but didn’t think it would be possible,’’ she said.

"…I am still doing the dishes, but just don’t get paid as much."

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The hotel, which was previously called the Millstream Hotel and the Ravenshoe Hotel, opened for business on Christmas Day 1927 with lots of fanfare and hoopla.

Mrs Willmann said the hotel was built to service the military, who were based in the area.

Apparently, this was the second attempt to construct the hotel. The first was destroyed in a cyclone.

Mrs Willmann said the silky oak used throughout the two-storey, 18-bedroom building is "worth more than the pub itself."

After the military moved out of the area, the hotel was a favourite of loggers, then tourists and also contractors working for the Baal Gammon mine near Herberton.

The hotel serves "good Aussie food, pub food, big food" seven days a week. The woman who prepares the meals refuses to call herself a "chef’’ – she’s a "cook".

Sitting at 916m, the hotel is the highest pub in the state.

Electrician Sam Greenwood, 21, who works on the Gold Coast but comes back as often as he can, said: "Ravenshoe is the highest town in Queensland, so it must be the highest pub.’’ While he loves life on the Gold Coast, he says people are not as friendly as in Ravenshoe.

"The owners of the hotel are great, very friendly. They always greet you with a smile,’’ he said.

Retired Shell engineer Warwick Lloyd enjoys the atmosphere and the "good, solid pub-type meals’’.

Over the years, Mr Lloyd had met some interesting characters who frequented the pub, but none more so that Gordon Earl, who developed the nearby Millstream Estates.

"He flew 29 missions in Lancaster bombers as a navigator when the average was eight,’’ he said. "He was such a nice bloke…– a real gent."

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