Once Australia's northern capital, Newcastle Waters became a ghost town

Wayne Kraft, an amateur historian, walks through the abandoned hotel in Newcastle Waters, a ghost town in Australia's Northern Territory. He imagines the past, hearing "the walls talk" and visualizing patrons in the "pub with no beer," once the sole establishment for hundreds of kilometers.

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I've walked in here on my own and I can hear the walls talk, go into the kitchen and just visualise people, the ladies cooking with their long gowns.

In 1926, the federal government planned to split the Northern Territory into two administrative regions. Alice Springs was designated the capital of Central Australia, while Newcastle Waters was chosen to replace Darwin as the capital of the North. This decision was driven by the lack of road access to Darwin, which was primarily reached by sea, and Newcastle Waters' existing importance as a hub on the Overland Telegraph Line and converging stock routes.

Newcastle Waters was built on the edge of a cattle station of the same name, which still operates today. During its peak, it served as a crucial stop for drovers transporting thousands of cattle from as far as the Kimberley region of Western Australia to Queensland, a journey of about 1,500 kilometers. The Murranji Track, a notoriously remote 234-kilometer stretch from Top Springs to Newcastle Waters, was known as the "death track" by some drovers but was the only viable route before modern roads and trucks.

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It's the pub with no beer.

Although a small school remains for local Aboriginal communities, Newcastle Waters is now uninhabited. Jock Jones's store once served as a vital supply point for drovers. Former drover Roger Steele recalls his teenage years spent on the stock routes, highlighting the town's historical significance as a center for the cattle industry and a testament to the challenging lives of those who worked the land.

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There's big mobs of cattle moving through here. I can only visualise what it would have been like.