There are some places you stop because they're beautiful.

Some because they're convenient.

And some because somewhere along the way, somebody started hanging bras from the ceiling, collecting expired driver's licences, filling the paddock with random animals and turning a junkyard into a tourist attraction.

Welcome to Daly Waters.

And somehow, amongst all that glorious outback chaos, it bloody works.

We'd seen Daly Waters Pub countless times before we arrived. It's one of those places that seems to appear on every Northern Territory road trip — usually via the obligatory family photo underneath the sign out the front.

So naturally, we wondered whether it was genuinely worth the stop…

…or just very good at getting its photo taken.

Turns out, there's a lot more going on here than the sign.

Daly Waters is a tiny Northern Territory settlement about 274km south of Katherine, near the junction of the Stuart and Carpentaria Highways.

The Daly Waters Historic Pub sits a short detour off the Stuart Highway and dates back to 1930. Over the years it has become one of those quintessential Territory road-trip stops — corrugated iron, cold drinks and an increasingly ridiculous collection of things travellers have left behind.

But we'd argue the best way to experience it isn't to race in, photograph the sign and race back out again.

Stay the night.

First things

first:

where is Daly Waters?

Walk inside and there's almost too much to look at.

Bras.

Driver's licences.

Foreign currency.

Hats.

Thongs.

And assorted pieces of human history that make you wonder what sequence of events led to someone standing in an outback pub and deciding:

"Yep. They can have this."

According to the pub, the tradition apparently started in the 1980s after a drinking bet between a coach driver and his female passengers.

Hence the bras.

From there, things appear to have escalated considerably.And that's part of what makes the place so bloody entertaining.

This isn't a carefully curated collection behind museum glass. The pub feels like decades of travellers have slowly decorated it themselves.

Then there are the animals

Because apparently having a pub covered in underwear wasn't enough.

Walk back outside and you'll find animals wandering around the property.

During our stay there were cows, donkeys, horses, chickens and a goat casually getting on with their lives while caravanners wandered around taking photos of them.

The pub officially lists chickens, ducks, horses, donkeys, goats, Brahman cattle and Texas longhorns among its free-roaming residents.

It's particularly brilliant if you're travelling with kids. Although, frankly, we were probably just as entertained.

Don't forget the aviation history either

There's another part of Daly Waters that's easy to overlook.

The town played an important role in Australian aviation history.

The Daly Waters Aviation Complex contains the oldest aircraft hangar in the Northern Territory and the aerodrome once operated as an international and military stopover during an era when aircraft travelling across Australia needed multiple refuelling stops.

So if you've got time, there's considerably more history around Daly Waters than what's hanging from the ceiling of the pub.

But we'd go one step further. If your itinerary allows it, don't just stop.

Stay.

Daly Waters is one of those places where the attraction isn't one particular thing you need to see.

It's the whole ridiculous combination of them.

The historic pub.

The memorabilia.

The campground.

The animals.

The junkyard.

The people passing through.

And that unmistakable feeling that you're somewhere you simply wouldn't find anywhere else.

Would we drive across Australia solely to visit Daly Waters Pub?

Probably.

Would we drive straight past it while travelling the Stuart Highway?

Not a bloody chance.

This is exactly the sort of place we're travelling Australia for.

Not because it's polished.

Because there's a story here.

And we're chasing stories.

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