Brad and Belinda Seymour have reopened the Arltunga Bush Pub, in the NT’s East MacDonnell Ranges, and they have big plans.
Story Terri Cowley Photos Peter Pap
Brad Seymour was just 17 when he arrived at Loves Creek station in the NT to work cattle for his uncle and aunt, Peter and Sandy Bloomfield. He was so unprepared for the experience – having arrived from Fiji, where his father Warren was a pilot – that his cousins met him at Alice Springs Airport and immediately took him shopping for a hat and some R.M.Williams boots.
Fast-forward more than 40 years, and it seems appropriate that Brad and his wife Belinda are back in Central Australia as owners of the Arltunga Bush Pub, reviving a watering hole that has had mixed fortunes since being built near the deserted ruins of the Arltunga gold mining settlement in the 1980s.
Belinda is no stranger to remote locations, having been raised in Darwin and Tennant Creek, and being a descendant of her great-grandmother in Booroloola, a member of the stolen generations who married a Scotsman.
“We bought the pub in 2021 and we’ve had to make a lot of infrastructure improvements,” Belinda says, flanked by her two border terriers, Lady Booptun and Queen Beatrice. “We’ve been running the campground since 2022, but now we have three beautiful glamping tents with ensuites, and two pools for guests.”
This story excerpt is from issue #164
Outback Magazine: Dec/Jan 2026
