Kimberley Beef Burger, Drysdale River Station, North Kimberley

What a long way it is to the glorious and harsh North Kimberley! These days the Gibb River Road - ignoring the viciously disproportionate rumours that circulate amongst certain unadventurous Grey Nomads one may meet - could readily, albeit carefully, be taken in a 2wd.  But the Kulumburu Rd, despite regular grading by the manager of Drysdale River Station, still offers one's sit-bones a brutal massage.  But there is, thankfully, relief: shade and comfortable seats surrounded by palms and a bar where magical burgers appear, an oasis for the meat-emaciated.  Welcome to Drysdale River Station.

Walk past the petrol bowsers, past the public telephone hidden in the carcass of a fridge, swagger up to the bar and order one of their magnificent Kimberley Beef Burgers!

Now Sarah and I have devoured many of the best burgers in this country: the Platonic ideal of the take-away burger that resides at Andrews Burgers, Melbourne; Neil Perry's delectable, benchmark, albeit over-priced Wagyu Burger at Rockpool; the poorer, although still worthy, impersonator of Neil Perry's burger served at Plan B by Becasse in Sydney.  All these burgers are good, but I'm going to be brash enough to claim that Drysdale River Station's Kimberley Beef Burger is the Zeus amongst the Pantheon of Australian burgers.

It matches the Platonic quality of Andrew's burger in every way - everything is perfectly fried, the cheese is consummately melted, the buns are crunchy on the outside, fluffy in the middle, sauces are amply indulged and all salad ingredients are crisply fresh.  But it is double the size of an Andrew's burger... and then there is the beef!  Coarsely ground, fragrant Kimberley cattle squashed into a patty that, if frisbied with enough skill, could knock out a rampaging bull.  Yet this seductive, bear-sized patty is less oily than Neil Perry's Wagyu patty.
Add to these thoughts the riddle of how, being so ridiculously remote, the folks at Drysdale River Station manage to achieve this quality of freshness, and you have before you one of the great triumphs of the burger world.
Just to make sure our first burger wasn't a fluke, we stopped in again, having eaten all our supplies, having lived on a trickle of filtered creek water for nigh on two remote weeks... and, thank the burger-gods, it was no fluke.  The Kimberley Beef Burger is a bastion of considered, well made food in a part of this country that is as startlingly beautiful as it is harsh and remote.