Flanked by the Pacific Highway and the Nambucca River on the
mid-north coast of NSW, Macksville stands at the southern gateway to the beautiful Nambucca Valley which CSIRO boffins have decreed has ‘the most enviable climate in Australia’.
About midway between Brisbane and Sydney, the valley was originally settled by cedar loggers and you can get the feel of the early days by visiting the Mary Boulton Pioneer Cottage whose rough-sawn timber walls protect period furniture, utensils and tools.
Fish, oysters and bananas might keep spending money in the Macksvillian pocket, but it is a small hotel at Taylors Arm, 25km to the west, that keeps pulling in the tourists. The pub was known for many years as the Cosmopolitan, but all that changed in 1957 when country singing star Slim Dusty wrapped his tonsils round a ditty attributed to bush poet Gordon Parsons.
Dusty turned The Pub With No Beer into an international hit. Ever since the old Cosmo, which did run dry one fateful day during the black days of World War II, has been known as The Pub With No Beer. And the beer runs most freely at Easter when the pub and the town celebrate The Pub With No Beer Festival.
Find out more about the
mid-north coast of NSW.
