Open-Door Policy

We'll Drink To That

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

These might look like the bat-wing doors from some Wild West saloon, but this is actually the entrance of the Ettamogah Pub in New South Wales, just across the border from neighbouring Victoria.

Every time we drive down the Hume Highway, we make it a point to stop off here - which in turn means that regular readers of this blog would recall at least three or four pictorial posts on the unique pub that is a real-life depiction of Ken Maynard's cartoons in The Australasian Post.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on a two-day trip into the Outback, up the beautiful Riverina region of New South Wales. Yes, I had the GPS in the car with me, but I didn't plug it in, preferring to operate on the "turn left at the dead gum tree" school of navigation. (And no, I didn't get lost. Not once. Fair dinkum.)

I knew I had to turn onto the Olympic Highway just after the Ettamogah Pub, but it was one of those trips where photography held sway, not the clock. So of course I pulled off the Hume Highway to spend twenty minutes in a familiar part of the country. And yes, each time I photograph this amazing landmark, the light is different.

I had a yarn to Chrissy the barmaid while I was there, but there was one key question I forgot to ask her, regarding the front door. Next time we drop in, I'll ask her this: is it famous for being the easiest door to get in through but the most difficult to get out of?

I’d welcome any thoughts you might have …


For earlier posts in this series, check out The Doors Archive.

The Great Barrier Roof

A Tourist Attraction? Yup, We'll Drink To That

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Relax – it’s not really the scene of a plane crash. The downed ``aircraft’’ and the rickety pub can be seen at Albury-Wodonga, on the border of New South Wales and Victoria. The Ettamogah Pub is based on a fictional pub in a famous Outback cartoon series. It all started with a bloke called Ken Maynard, an Australian police officer who began contributing cartoons in 1958 to a magazine called `The Australasian Post’. His fictional ``Ettamogah Pub’’ - and its strong-jawed outback drinkers in their blue singlets and shorts - became so famous that someone had the great idea of reconstructing the pub in real life. Interestingly, the project posed a special problem for the architects because there were no straight lines in Maynard’s rendering! However, as you can see, the wonky pub is structurally sound. It is a huge tourist attraction – despite the sign outside that proclaims with laconic humour, ``Free Beer Tomorrow’’. The ute (that's Aussie-speak for a ``utility'' vehicle) parked on the roof is a wonderful touch, faithful to Maynard's series. And if you look closely at the first picture, you'll see the sign says ``Keep Right'' even though the arrow points left!