Once a humble bar and family home, the Plainland Hotel has come a long way since it opened its doors in 1914.




Porters Plainland Hotel is a familiar landmark on the Warrego Highway just an hour's drive from Brisbane, at the eastern gateway to Queensland's beautiful Lockyer Valley.

Today the Hotel is managed by a third generation of Porters, Michael and his wife Shelley and sister Mel, following his parents Bob and Julie, and grandparents Dick and Rita who first leased it from Castlemaine Perkins in 1946.

The Porters arrived in Australia in 1909, already long involved in the hotel business in their native Ireland.  At one stage, seven of Dick's siblings either owned or leased hotels in south east Queensland.

After gaining experience in Dalby at his father's Arcadia Hotel, Dick with Rita branched out on their own, settling on Plainland for its prime location on the main western highway.

Dick Porter, a showman at heart, ran a pretty unique operation.  He and Rita never owned or drove a vehicle and never had more than one holiday in thirty years of running the pub.  In the days when the old swaggies were still on the roads, they would provide a night's rest on the verandah and a breakfast in the morning.

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