Brown’s Well no longer dry

Hundreds of meals are served with the drinks each week at the tavern in tiny Paruna, SA.

Story John Dunn  Photos Italo Vardaro

It’s been a long time between drinks at Paruna, a tiny town in the SA Mallee close to the Victorian border, but at last, it seems, the drought is well and truly over.

Paruna has a population of just 20 and, with not another business in town, you might think it doesn’t need a pub. But it’s the centre of the Brown’s Well rural district, circled by many hard-working grain growers who feel they need a drink at the end of a day in the paddocks. 

Annmarie Boyce, who runs an aged care and disability service in Adelaide, and her partner Dino Nardecchia, a TAFE teacher who takes classes in furniture restoration, have come to the rescue of this grateful community by resurrecting the remains of a former pub and converting it into one that is booming.

They make the 472km round trip every weekend to assist their mid-week staff, who operate on reduced hours Monday–Thursday.