For three whole years, Nabawa in Western Australia’s mid-west region was without a local watering hole.
After the previous owners retired and sold up shop in 2018, the Nabawa Valley Tavern sat gathering dust, leaving residents of the Shire of Chapman Valley no choice but to meet and socialise in the next town over. It took 20 minutes and a designated driver to get to the closest cold one in Northampton. Or, if punters wanted range and choice, they could travel 30 minutes to one of the umpteen pubs and taverns in the Geraldton area.
None of these options were ideal.
In 2021, seasoned publicans Kristina Drage and Scott Simister (of the Freemasons Hotel and Murchison Tavern) took the reigns, steering the old-school 70’s tavern into a new era. Under their ownership, the worn blue carpet of the 20-person bar was torn up, the parquetry flooring was replaced with tile, and the bar got an industrial-style brick makeover. They even brought the skill and expertise of their manager at Freemasons Hotel, Semi Tokula, in to steer the ship. But the most significant transformation that the space saw wasn’t on the inside.
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Abutting the brown brick façade—which has remained relatively unchanged since it was built in 1973—Drage and Simister created an almost soccer pitch-sized grassed beer garden. It’s as conspicuous as anything among Nabawa’s dry and dusty crop-growing fields, not least because of the seemingly out-of-place mature date palms waving in the breeze; it’s an oasis in an otherwise barren summer landscape. Such spaces are few and far between in these parts of rural Western Australia, and the scale of the Nabawa Tavern’s fertile outdoor area earns it the unofficial title of ‘the best beer garden in the Mid West’.
Even on a scorching 43-degree day, patrons make the most of it, sitting outside beneath the shade sails and sinking a pint on the grass. The taps here are lager-heavy, so their glasses are filled with either James Squire’s 150 Lashes, Little Creature’s Elsie, Carlton Dry, Great Northern, or the local favourite Swan Draught. Those nursing wine glasses are likely on a bright Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, with five of the seven whites on the list being of the variety.
Cold suds and a lush beer garden are just two parts of the Nabawa Tavern’s whole. Each day from 8.30am to 8.00pm, the kitchen pumps out the very definition of ‘elite pub grub’. The food is so good that it rivals that of its Geraldton counterparts; a mean feat for the small town’s primary eatery.
Families fill the dining room off the main bar, groups of friends and their children coming together for a mid-week feed. The menu is substantial for a small venue, covering everything from parmis and schnitzels to perfectly grilled sirloin, crispy beer-battered fish, and BBQ beef ribs; all served with crunchy thick-cut chips. There are a few off-piste dishes, too, which gently explore some more worldly flavours. Take, for example, the nasi goreng and—as it reads on the menu—Adobo (Google it) pizza.
The Nabawa Valley Tavern is the perfect case study for underpromising and overdelivering. At its heart, it’s a small-town hangout, perfectly casual and understated, where high-vis and workboots are welcome. But it’s also a fine example of the power of a well-thought-out space (or, in this case, a beer garden) and a skilled kitchen team who clearly care about their community. Now, not only is Nabawa no longer without a watering hole, it’s also gained one of the finer ones in the region.
