The Barrow Creek Hotel, a historic pub in Australia's Northern Territory, has had its liquor licence suspended from 1 January 2026 after the Northern Territory Liquor Commission found the 76-year-old publican, Les Pilton, unfit to hold a licence. The pub, located 283km north of Alice Springs, is the last place British backpacker Peter Falconio was seen alive before his 2001 murder.
The commission considered ten grounds of complaint, including serving Indigenous customers through a hatchway while they stood outside, using government-issued income management cards. Other issues included broken female toilets, exposed wiring, a non-functional hand dryer, failure to provide meals and drinking water, and not maintaining a working computer or responding to emails.
Commission chair Russell Goldflam noted that Pilton's 'close and apparently effective relationship with local drinkers' appeared to moderate excessive alcohol use, and local police reported little alcohol-related trouble. However, the commission found Pilton's evidence 'often evasive, inconsistent, argumentative or non-responsive' and lacking 'candour'.
Goldflam acknowledged that Pilton has run the pub for 37 years and is responsible for maintaining power, water, and sewage in the remote location with no community or government utilities. He described Pilton as an 'authentic old-style Territory outback character' but concluded that this did not make him unfit to run an outback pub, despite the licence suspension.
