It's not quite the pub with no beer, but Queensland has a school with no students.
Mackenzie River State School has zero students enrolled, according to "day 8" figures published by Education Queensland.
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The school is an outcrop of buildings off a lonely stretch of road called Dingo Mount Flora Road, about 240km west of Rockhampton in central Queensland.
The sad lack of enrolment in 2017 comes after the state school had three male students attending in 2016 (in Years 4, 5 and 6), 10 students in 2015, 13 students in 2014 and 17 in 2013.
An article in The Morning Bulletin in September 2016 said the school was a hub of the community as it was the only place where people could meet and hold functions, but enrolments had dropped because of a changing community and reduced workforce.
Acting principal Catherine Phillis said rumours had spread that the school had already closed.
"The impact of this rumour could be quite profound for our school as we may miss out on potential enrolments and if the school was closed our community would lose a valuable resource," Ms Phillis told the Rockhampton newspaper.
But despite having no students in 2017 – and its staff being deployed elsewhere – the school has not officially closed.
Education Minister Kate Jones said if a school had zero students, there was an 18-month process to follow before it was closed, with consultation with the community.
In her term, Ms Jones said five schools had been closed after not receiving any enrolments after 18 months.
On its website, Mackenzie River State School describes itself as a "little oasis", a small, one-teacher school, 95km north of Dingo and 35km south of Middlemount.
It has two airconditioned classrooms, each with a computer lab, a library, undercover area, picnic lunch room, tennis court, two playgrounds and a large oval.
Member for Mirani Jim Pearce said the economy and technology had reduced the number of families who worked and lived in the area.
"Whereas we used to have a property owner, say a cattle grazier, might employ two or three families, but they no longer employ to that level because they've got things like helicopters to do their mustering, quad bikes ... So there's a lesser need to have the stockman that you used to have," he said.
Mr Pearce said children often went off to high school, did school of the air or went away to boarding school.
He said Mackenzie River was a beautiful little school and it was a shame to lose smaller rural schools.
"The students have done a lot of great work in the school and so has the P&C;," he said.
"Those little schools in those communities are actually a very strong meeting place for landholder families and their employees."
Mackenzie River State School is about a one-hour drive from the tiny school of Clarke Creek State School, which was badly damaged by flooding in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie.
Meanwhile, the Queensland schools with the highest percentage growth in enrolment between 2013 to 2017 can be revealed.
Topping the list is the small Brigalow State School – near Chinchilla – which increased from 11 students to 56, an increase of 409.09 per cent.
That was followed by Pimpama State Secondary College, which increased from 292 to 1419, an increase of 385.96 per cent.
At the bottom of the list was Mackenzie River, which now has no students, and the school with the second-highest percentage decrease was Maidavale State School.
On Thursday morning, the Queensland government announced $500 million to open two new high schools in Brisbane's inner city and expand another.
Attempts were made to reach Ms Phillis for comment.
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