The historic Kevington Hotel sits in such a quiet pocket of north-eastern Victoria that there is no store, no cafe and - gasp -- no mobile phone coverage.
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But life at the 'Kevington Hilton', built into a curve of Woods Point Road, 45km south of Mansfield, is never dull.
Ever since Wayne and Lyn-Maree Poole took over the 155-year-old hotel 10 years ago, they've met a weird and wonderful array of characters.
There was the couple who parked their six camels outside. Which they had walked 1700km, from Ipswich, Queensland.
Or the Frenchwoman leading two donkeys from Mount Hotham to Marysville.
At 3am, on New Year's Day 2009, a couple knocked on the pub door.
Illegal fireworks ignited at their campsite had caused their labrador to bolt into the bush, and fall nine metres down an old mine shaft.
They asked Mrs Poole to call a TV animal rescue show to retrieve the dog.
Instead she enlisted a local miner, Billy Scott, to abseil down and fetch the pooch. "There was not so much as a thank you." says Mrs Poole.
Summer is high season at the Kevington, and it could be the Pooles' last as owners. With regret, they have put the hotel up for sale, because they need a break.
They want to spend more time with their disabled son, Joseph, 25, who lives in Wangaratta.
The hotel, originally called Garrett's Beer House after the family that owned it for 90 years, is the last of dozens of pubs or grog shacks left from the 1860s gold rush.
The nearby Gaffneys Creek Hotel famously was burnt down by two prison escapees and a rogue female prison guard in 1993.
One of the escapees, Archie Butterly, later died in a police shootout in the bush.
Mr Poole says after mining died down in the 1990s, the hotel survived well from four wheel drive enthusiasts, hunters, prospectors and fishers.
But the nearby A1 Mine re-opened nine years ago, and now has about 80 employees. Some of them fly-in, fly-out from Western Australian mines.
Mr Poole's grandparents, Clarrie and Elsie Poole and their relatives, owned the pub from 1957 until 1986.
He remembers blissful days shooting rabbits and fishing for trout in the Goulburn River that flows right behind the pub with his uncles, and eating his grandmother's roast beef and home-made pudding.
He says apart from Woods Point Road now being paved, and with a modern kitchen, gas and solar power, not much has changed from those days.
It's not five star. Overnight guests have no TV in the rooms and shared toilets down the outside corridor. Carlton Draught is still on tap.
But there's plenty of wildlife in the area such as king parrots, wedge tailed eagles and kangaroos, peace and quiet if you want it, or good company in the bar.
"If someone comes along and buys the hotel and continues on in the same tradition, they'll do very well out of it, and make a lot of friends," Mr Poole says.
The Kevington Hotel is for sale at $850,000.
