IT'S a long way from where she was reared on Ooroowilannie Station, 120 miles north of Marree, SA, but Jean Smith has cemented her place in the woodwork of the old Channel Country drovers' stop, Bedourie.
Her journey began on her 17th birthday when she car-hopped north-east, riding with the late "Birdsville Mailman" Tom Kruse to Birdsville, and on to the Betoota Hotel with the Windorah mailman.
The final leg ended west at Davenport Downs, where Jean's sister and brother-in-law were managing.
After a few years helping her sister on the property, Jean returned home for a while before heading north again for work.
But she didn't end up where she expected to be.
"I was going up to Betoota Hotel but it rained so I couldn't get up there. So I got here (Birdsville Hotel) and got the job."
The year she spent helping out a relative's sister in the hotel kitchen opened her eyes.
"I learnt a lot there I didn't know," she said. "I learned you could have parties anytime at the hotel; I thought it was only race time."
Jean then further extended her helping hand into the heart of the Queensland outback, embarking on the long trek north to Bedourie.
While helping out family with cooking duties, the then 22-year-old Jean met and married into links entrenched in Bedourie history.
She married the brother of the prominent Gaffney family's daughter-in-law after the family changed hands in business with revered entrepreneur pastoralist Sidney Kidman.
Jean's father-in-law also owned property "out the other side of the Mulligan (River)", and her own family soon expanded to include five sons and the deed to the Bedourie Hotel.
Forty years later, Jean's son Jim, who Jean proudly said was once named the youngest publican in Queensland, mans the business while she looks on with a watchful eye.
She has no complaints about the open spaces she calls home.
"It's just been a good life.
"I enjoy living out here, I've never lived anywhere else. I don't travel; I don't want to travel."
Keeping strong affiliations with land and family in the isolated heart of Queensland is important to Jean.
She previously owned the former Cobb & Co stop which became the Mud Hut opposite the Bedourie Hotel, before the Diamantina Shire Council bought it in 2001.
The family is proud to retain its intimate link with past Australian figurehead Sidney Kidman, but other connections are more tenuous.
"I don't like that Sidney's stations are being sold; some people have been there for 30 years," Jean said. Times are changing around the bar, too.
"We had a really good session in the hotel through the winter with old and young bush people, but it's different now, the old-timers are going and the place is changing altogether."
Whatever her crowd, Jean has always expected good manners and respect. "I never swore when I was behind the bar, and no one used that ('F') word, and if anyone ever did they would say, 'I beg your pardon, excuse me' that was the respectful thing."
Jean celebrated her 85th birthday this year. Story and pictures: ELIZA ROGERS.
