"I've stayed in a lot of places, in weird places in the world: North Korea, Syria, The Congo ? and the Larrimah is up there on remoteness, weirdness," Mr Joly said.
"But it was a decent place and the people were brilliant."
The series includes a scene where the international visitors and local drinkers get into a verbal bar brawl over the best word for being drunk.
"Rat-arsed" and "wankered" are options shouted across the room, with a Territory competitor offering up "circumcised with a VB lid".
Among the local revellers, was a recognisable moustachioed figure, Paddy Moriarty perched on a bar stool. He was a feature of this irreverent environment, a daily visitor to the pub.
"He was part of the hotel, he was the greeter if you like, the concierge," the local mechanic Mark Rayner said.
PHOTO: Paddy Moriarty drank at the pub every day. (Supplied: Barry Sharpe)
But how had a man born in the cold, wet south-west of Ireland ended up living in this tiny place in the Australian tropics in the middle of nowhere?
International man of mystery
Paddy Moriarty was a teenager when he stepped onto the Fairstar passenger ship in Europe in 1966 and set sail for Australia.
"He came from Ireland, and there was some pretty wild men back in those days," said David Graham, a regular at Larrimah's pub.
Little is known of Paddy's family history: he was born in Limerick.
His mother Mary Teresa Moriarty has died. No father was listed on his birth certificate.
Australian police searches have turned up no evidence of siblings or children. He never married.
"I've never had a missus, just me dog, no dramas," he's quoted as saying in a 2013 book.
PHOTO: Paddy Moriarty and his previous dog Rover on the cover of the 2013 book Every Man and His Dog (Supplied: Murdoch Books)
Back in the 1960s, Paddy went to Brunette Downs cattle station, between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa.
"He's quite a fit fella ? he used to be a ringer ? he actually won the 1996 rodeo in Darwin," said Detective Sergeant Allen.
After decades of stockwork, Paddy turned up in Larrimah more than 10 years ago.
When he first went missing, police had little to go on to build a profile ? no computer, email, mobile phone, or social media.
Just an old bloke with a seldom-used landline who told stories about his station life to friends and visitors at the pub.
In the end, police notified Interpol and Irish police in the hopes of finding his family.
An interview conducted by the ABC with the Irish public broadcaster RTE in February this year ended up unearthing a missing link.
A listener in Limerick heard the town Abbeyfeale name-checked as Paddy's place of birth, and recognised the key detail police had to go on ? his mother's name.
(**Copy of Irish birth certificate in article)
Police are now confident they have located Paddy's extended family.
Two people agreed to do DNA testing. Police think that while they are Paddy's relatives, the relationship is too distant to be reflected in the analysis.
They're keeping the material on file in case technology improves.
But with no confirmed links, Paddy's possessions are now in the hands of the public trustee, including his deserted house.
In the past, travellers might have stopped in Larrimah for liquid refreshments at the pub, or a pie at the tea house.
But now there's a new attraction, where some tourists slow and snap a photo or get out for a closer look.
It's Paddy's abandoned property, with a missing persons poster tied to the fence.
PHOTO: Paddy's abandoned property, with a missing persons poster outside, has become a tourist attraction. (ABC News: Neda Vanovac)
The tuna fishing alibi
Fran Hodgetts wakes up to that missing persons sign across this highway every day. It is visible from her bedroom window.
Pictured is the neighbour who she's accused of making her life hell, both before he disappeared and after.
Fran and Paddy were locked in a decade-long dispute; in an interview with former veteran ABC reporter Murray McLaughlin in 2011, Paddy admitted to telling potential customers not to eat at Fran's tea house, and encouraging travellers to buy pies from the Pink Panther instead.
"He started stirring a lot of rubbish, he was carting yarns from here over to the pub," Fran said.
Paddy had a vested interest, of course. He spent most afternoons at the hotel and he also helped out in the mornings cleaning the pub's toilet block.
Back in 2011, Paddy declared Fran's pies were of such poor quality his dog wouldn't eat them.
"Fran's got the worst pies and I'll f***ing tell you that," he said, chuckling and sipping his beer.
Barry wrote off Paddy's messing with Fran as "larrikin behaviour."
But Fran's version of events is much darker.
She claims Paddy sabotaged her business, stealing her sun umbrella, putting crushed glass under customers' tyres, dumping dead kangaroos on her property, and poisoning expensive plants in her garden.
She called the police numerous times.
PHOTO: Fran Hodgetts said police searched her property and seized items including a hacksaw, but she strongly denies any knowledge of what happened to her neighbour. (ABC News: Neda Vanovac)
A few months before Paddy's disappearance, Fran had hired a new gardener for her business, Owen Laurie.
Owen rarely left the teahouse property. Most locals didn't have a clue what he looked like.
When Paddy went missing, police spent the 2017 Christmas break interviewing everyone in town.
Because of the history between Paddy and Fran, officers closely questioned Fran and Owen, conducted forensic searches of the property, drained her septic tank, and took away Owen's laptop and car.
Those investigations have not led to any arrests, and both Owen and Fran deny having anything to do with Paddy's disappearance.
"I don't believe in retaliation," Fran declared two weeks after Paddy disappeared.
"I believe in karma."
She said she and Owen were home the night their neighbour was last seen.
But she maintains she didn't hear anything unusual.
She said she told police she recalls watching a tuna fishing documentary in her bedroom, and she would have spied anything strange over the highway from her window.
That's significant, because in Larrimah, sound carries.
PHOTO: The plants at Fran's Devonshire Tea House are tended by gardener Owen Laurie. (ABC News: Neda Vanovac)
Silent treatment
The clash of the neighbours at the top end of town wasn't the only disagreement in Larrimah.
Ask any resident whether they all get along, and they shake their heads.
Retired fire and rescue volunteers Karl and Bobbie Roth, who still keep their hard hats by the door, stay largely to themselves and steer clear of the pub.
Fran hasn't set foot in the pub for 10 years, and accuses Barry and his regulars of trying to drive her out of town.
She's very upset by her characterisation in the media, since news of the pie wars came to light, as a "pie lady".
"I'm not a pie lady," she insisted.
"Call me a scone lady, I don't care. Call me a Devonshire tea lady, that's what I am. Even though my pies are famous."
PHOTO: Fran Hodgett has been leaving pies off the menu and focusing on scones since the disappearance of Paddy Moriarty. (ABC News: Neda Vanovac)
Len Hodson and Fran's ex-husband "Billy Light Can" Hodgetts can often be found at the pub.
They agree that in a town of 10, many people studiously avoid each other.
"It just doesn't work," Len said of the clashing personalities.
"You get that in all small towns, I think."
Cookie said he's been banned from the pub for stealing chocolate bars, a charge he strongly denies.
He claims the accusation is absurd because he has "sugar diabetes".
Cookie and Paddy didn't always get along; he said Paddy was the kind of bloke "who'd cause trouble in an empty house".
"I had a couple of run-ins with him, he was bad news in his own way," he said.
"He done more harm to himself than anyone else because he just dribbled a whole lot of shit."
Cookie said Paddy got mouthy after a few beers.
"He used to piss me off and I'd want to grab him by the neck and break his bloody neck ? but it never happened," he said.
PHOTO: Larrimah's oldest resident Len Hodson says personality clashes are part and parcel of small town life. (ABC News: Neda Vanovac)
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