EP030 | TAP - Stories You Only Hear In Country Pubs | Tim Allan Pt. 2

Last week, Tim Allan from The Local explained why country pubs matter.

This week, he tells the stories that prove it.

In Part 2 of our conversation, Tim takes us across Australia through some of the most memorable pubs, characters and moments he's encountered while documenting regional pub culture.

We visit Birdsville, Betoota and Marble Bar, meet legendary locals, and hear stories that range from heartwarming to completely unbelievable.

In this episode:

• Tiny outback towns that explode to thousands of visitors for race weekends
• Pubs brought back to life after decades sitting empty
• Legendary regulars with their own seats at the bar
• A red-bellied black snake hiding in a pool table
• One unforgettable royal souvenir story involving Queen Elizabeth II
• The characters that make Australian pubs unlike anywhere else in the world

There are tales involving race meetings, outback pubs, a snake in a pool table, and perhaps the strangest royal souvenir ever collected.

If you've ever planned a road trip around a pub stop, this one's for you.

Pubs. Pints. People.

🍺 About Tim & The Local

Tim Allan is the founder of The Local, a storytelling platform dedicated to documenting Australia's country pubs, the publicans who run them, and the communities that keep them alive. What started as a passion project has grown into one of Australia's leading pub-focused media platforms, with millions of views across social media. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Episode two, we've had a comfort break. It was real in episode one. Episode two, we're gonna have a little bit more fun with David Leno Lennon. Such a cool idea. Chat on tap. We need to come up with a new tagline. And I've been thinking about it because I've been listening to it. But I don't think it's gonna work for you. I was more thinking just keep it simple. Uh-huh. And it would work if we're in England, but we're not, or in Melbourne. Pints, pub, people. Ooh. Pints, pubs, people. But you're more of a craft beer guy. Tell us about what you do.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

I I think what I've more recently come to terms with, as some of the the um viewers and listeners would know, is I think I like the term independent. Yes. Because I still love a bloody just a I've come back around to me lager and draft. Same. I think the first beer of the day or the week ends or whatever, just something that is just beer.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

That first one that I mean, don't be wrong, I love my IPAs. I like a I like going as dark as an amber or a stout.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Once you go black.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

You I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Do you then move to one? I first learned how to drink uh two years old in Kaura at the Kaura Bowling Club. It's actually a little bit of an interesting story if you're interested in that kind of thing. Um so was in Kaura working, got a job at the bowling club. The Sellerman was this old guy, I think Norm. Like he must have been 75 at least, and he was the sellerman of the bowling club. And I was like, Oh, how come you drink old? And he's gone, Well, I've been the Sellerman for 50 years. You should see the shit that comes out of the other lines. Like, two as old is the cleanest beer that you're gonna get in regards to cleaning the lines, and he's like, You should start drinking it now. And I'm like, okay, so it took me a week to adjust because it's you know yeah, I was probably a VB or a new drinker beforehand, and then it took me a week to adjust, and then once you adjust it, it was like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Now we probably should come back because we did we kind of had a loose intro here. We are talking to Tim Allen. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

I thought I did a great job.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

From the local. Yeah, I thought I was about to be interviewed on my own podcast here. Apologies. No, no.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Shall we start again?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

No, no. Again, let's let's let's start again. Um, welcome to episode two with Tim Allen from The Local.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

G'day, I'm Tim Allen from The Local.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Now, this is a show. If this if you've just tuned in now, you didn't miss last week. This show predominantly features uh regional pubs, but just tells the story of the people that are in there.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

I you you've been going for about five years now, you know, 50 million views. This is a this is genuinely a show that we're waiting for Seven Mate to come knocking on the door.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

What is it with you and Seven Mate?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

It feels like it's branding. Yeah, anyone, channel, channel nine, channel ten. Netflix. Netflix.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Well, they have to spend money on, you know, they have to spend money on creative different shows. Yes. Like why not?

SPEAKER_00 3:08

I don't want to say that I'm solving a problem for them, but I I'm solving a problem for them for their Oz content usage rights and licensing.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Um so your show goes all around Australia, all these regional pubs. Um, give us some of the most unique pubs that you've come across.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Oh, okay. Well, I mean, like a lot of the pubs that we uh, you know, that we only sort of know of and that we've done research and you know, been out there or or occasionally borrowed some vision. Obviously, Birdsville is like one of the classics. The Silverton pub is like pretty cool, and that's where Mad Max comes from, so unique in a way. The Blue Healer pub is cool in Queensland. Yep. Because it's where Slim Dusty first performed Waltzing Matilda. Oh. Not Slim Dusty, Banjo Patterson. Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure. No, we talked about Slim Dusty in the previous episode. Confused with my with with my local pub that's no longer open. Uh, where Banjo Patterson performed Waltzing Matilda at this pub, and it's also got a fireplace that was apparently built by R. M. Williams. So, like, how often do you get to walk into a pub that has got like a pretty huge Australiana presence there? Yeah, yeah. That's cool. That is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

So, can you just go back slightly? Um, I'm I missed, I've already forgotten the second one. The first one you mentioned was the Birdsville.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Yep. So Birdsville is a tiny little remote place in Queensland, southwest Queensland, famous for its horse races. Yeah, the Birdsville races. Yeah. It's sort of a tiny little community and then a pub that's just become iconic in a in Australia. If you're uh an Australian pub fan, you'll know about the Birdsville.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Yeah, I've been fascinated by I had a mate that went up to it.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Essentially, this this town is like a town of like a few hundred or something until the Birdsville races, and then it's Yeah, you're in the Simpson Desert, and so you'd have a few locals from agriculture and farming around the area, but obviously it relies on the Birdsville races. So that's kind of its claim to fame. The Birdsville races have become such a huge thing in Australia, and for a uh a week the town goes from a population of a hundred to five to ten thousand people, you know, like it's absolutely crazy. People fly in from all over regional parts of Australia, farmers. It's it's it's their grand final. Oh my god, it's just you know, when people talk about the local, and I think maybe uh a lot of people why they like it, it's really about you know connecting to experiences that are really Australian. Like this is really Aussie stuff that people that live in the city don't really get to experience. So you go out to the middle of the country, it's just red dirt and flat and hot and uh inaccessible for six months of the year in the wet season because the roads just you know it's it's crazy, it's just a different world.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

My closest to that, and I've actually forgotten the pub because this was so long ago I didn't have as much of a fascination, but we're in we're in marble bar in in WA. The population is about 400, I want to say. Also, at one point was considered the hottest place on earth. I think it had the record for the highest temperature.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Um maybe South Australia as well, but I think you might be right.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Yeah, we say it's probably been beaten. This was this would have been 2009, I want to say I was at university. I did a um, I was up there on a like we were a journalism student, so we were up there learning to report on regional matters. And uh, you know, there's a whole bunch of other things that we did, but we had a weekend off, and the the lady that was hosting us would be like, Oh yeah, take the car, go down to the marble bar races, and same thing, 400 people in the town usually, and then it swells to 3,000 people for these for this dirt track horse race, and some races have two horses in them, you know, and they're like put on a Cornella, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then and then to like you're buying beers there, and they were like three dollars or something at the time. And you're just buying a VB can out of an ESC basically.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, not emu bitter?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

No, uh well. Yeah, well, emu export. Emu export. But the pu I remember the pub, we got in the Friday night wanting to go to a pub. As we talked about. There's a pub in Marble Bar. There is, yeah. But the so Friday night we've rolled in where everyone has rolled in, and as you would say, well, you've rolled into this, what do you do? Well, you go to the pub. And they were still painting, they'd done a reno. They were still painting on the Friday, so Friday night we couldn't do anything. We were banking on getting in and getting a couple of beers at the pub. Instead, we got to the campsite because there's nothing to do, right? And it just I was with three girls from uni, like we're all on this uni trip. Isn't uni great? Uni's great. I mean, they're just great. Getting education kids. Right. So I was there. Back then I had I was wearing glasses. You know, I'm only five foot three on this short bloke, and we rolled into this campsite, and there was this these blokes. This is such a tangent.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

There's these blokes who had I was wondering where you were going with the glasses.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

This was about the bubble bar pub. But um, we rolled into this campsite where there's like 3,000 people staying there, and there was a there was a you know a a bunch of blokes they had took, you know, a a van and a and a land cruiser carrying a trailer. The trailer was filled with ice and filled with beers and whatnot. And we couldn't go to the pub because they were still painting it to get it ready for the races on the Saturday. So we go into this no bottle in general.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

They had management, no one pubs a classic year. Yeah, yeah. You need some foresight.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

So we go to the you know, and we're four hours out, like four hours inland, sort of thing. Go to the campsite being like, well, we've got no piss for the night. And the blokes that had the trailer full of ice, full of drinks, were like, Well, there's no females in this campsite, but you got three of them. So Harry Potter, as they called me, because of the glasses. Harry Potter, you can have as many drinks as you want if your female friends come hang out with us. Oh my god, it's all of which had boyfriends back in the city, so there were no chairs. But that's how we drank on the Friday night because it was.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Well done. I mean, it could have gone in a few directions after that. I'm glad it turned out okay for everybody, and you had a couple of beers.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah, but then by Saturday after the races, the pub was firing.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

That was probably my first experience of this like country pub that really fires on one night of the year or one or two nights of the year or something. And I'm guessing that's what Birdsville is like.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

I'm assuming so, but also it's on a travel route, and I and now it's pretty famous. So uh the great thing about Australia and Australian people, I think that they do want to travel. We're good travellers, and so why the local has also become so popular is because the a lot of the people that watch us are now interested in traveling around and going and seeing as much of the country as they can, and so you know, Facebook is probably an older demographic, but it works for us because we tell these stories. Yeah, a lot of people are sort of like, okay, well, planning a trip, and they've discovered us on Facebook, and they're like, Oh my, we're gonna plan to visit all of these pubs, and that's why it works, you know. It's sort of promoting these pubs, and it's letting people know, and it's also building a community where people can feel engaged and sort of contribute as well, because it's just you know, you're traveling around, you want to you want to see the real Australia. Well, the real Australia is a term that gets thrown around pretty loosely because I mean the real Australia is everywhere, but like the regional Australia that a lot of people don't know particularly well. And we and we bring that to light. So there's a lot of nostalgia, there's a lot of sort of like some great stories along the way of things that have happened in these areas as well that we like to tell.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Yeah. Um right, so I mean I uh sort of sidetracked you. Uh what have you got next? Unique pubs.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Unique pubs, so they're the classics, but the ones that we love in particular are the stories that are less known. So the Batuda Hotel, and obviously, you know, everyone knows about the Batuda Advocate. Yes. And hats off to those guys.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

I don't think they've been, I don't think they've come from Batuda. I might be wrong, but I think, you know, they've just sort of put their hat on it. But the Batuda Hotel is a thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is a real place, and there is no doubt it is a pub that was closed for 25 years. Wow. There was a guy who was, I think, Croatian Yugoslavian, who ran the pub for 20 odd years of his life. He's buried out the back.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

It's incredible. It was just him. There's no electricity, it's all a generator, you know, it's like they don't have keg deliveries, it's just cans of beer on ice or however they can survive. Yeah, and he ran that pub for truckies and people that would drive through on their way, and it's not actually far from Birdsville, it's like 160, 170k from Birdsville, so it's not as well known, but Batuda is the great stories that we love, and probably one of our most famous and successful stories that we've told. Robbo, I think he was a welder trade from Queensland, revived the pub 25 years shut, brought it back to life, and it's just stories like that that you know, like really inspire us to keep going and doing more stories. Because these stories don't come up every day, like they're pretty hard to find. But he, you know, we've been in contact with this guy ever since we've done the story. He sent us like a huge box of Batuda merch, whips, and all sorts of stuff that you wouldn't believe. Like, it's it's cool, but it means a lot to people in these remote communities to get a little bit of recognition. And although you might have heard of the Batuda Advocate, I don't think anyone actually knew that there was a pub.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

No, yeah, I I mean I thought it was I can't remember what it was. I thought it was like such the smallest of towns. Well, there's and I guess that makes sense. There has to be a pub.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

It is, it's this it's well, obviously the smallest town in Australia because it at the time had a population of zero or one who was the public in there, and it's only open six months a year, like a lot of these places, because uh during the summer it's too hot.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

It's just too hot. You can't you can't live there, it's just crazy. So it's open now. They were holding uh a music festival there recently, but then the rains came and it got flooded out, they had to cancel it. But I just love the idea of some guy driving past a pub that's been closed for 25 years and saying, bugger it, yeah, I'm gonna bring it back to life, and that's what I'm gonna do. And so we love that story. Like, that's a unique pub, it's a unique part of the country, and there's now, you know, once we put that up, every single person that follows us or saw the story and shared it, like, I've been, I've been there, I've been there. And seeing those comments is what, you know, I love. It's just really gives us a spur to do a little bit more and find more unique stories. So that's a unique story. The Kwambi pub in Queensland is very similar. A pub that was just a shack. Uh, and some travellers, I think it was a couple of mates and their wives were travelling around Australia and they drove past a Quambi pub that had been closed for 10 odd years, and it was just a pile of rubble. And one guy drove past and said, I'm going to rebuild that pub. And he did.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

And now it's like just pumping. Well, pumping's probably not the right word, but a lot of people are going there and people are going there, and it's just these beautiful stories, you know. That's what inspires us.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

And what about the locals? The locals that you've met along the way. I have one I have one, I have one favourite from your channel. But I will I'll mention him after you mention some others.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Alrighty. My favourite story, he's not my favourite local, he's my favourite story of all time. I recently went to uh a pub not far away from where I grew up. The Gladstone Hotel, named after Lord Gladstone in Newbridge, New South Wales. If you are not from this area, you are not going to know about this town. It's a tiny little town. And so I've always wanted to go there. It's a beautiful two-story old, lovely pub that was obviously on the railway line back in the day going west. And so that pub popped up as the railway went through and the population started to grow. This gorgeous pub, I came in there to do a little short for our uh for our uh Facebook, Instagram, etc. And came in on a weekend, and there were three blokes sitting at a table, their faces were like covered in smoke and charcoal, and they're sitting at a table. It must have been coming up to midday on a Saturday, I think it was. And I walk up, I'm like, what a beautiful pub! G'day, how you going? Introduce myself. I've made had heard of the local, which was great, and then I chat to him, and I'm like, tell us about the pub, and he's sort of like, oh well, you know didn't give me a great deal of history, but he was like, But I but I do have a story for you, and it's one of my favourite stories, and he said, The year 1970, the Queen had come to Australia, a lot of excitement around that because that doesn't happen every day. The Queen is in Australia, and she was taking the train to Western Region, so taking the train from Central out to Orange. So she stopped off at Bathurst and waved. I think they actually tried to derail the royal train at Lithgow. The sons and daughters of convicts had thrown a few uh sort of logs onto the tracks. This is true! This is all true. So it's 1970, they tried to derail the royal carriage, the royal train at Lithgow, didn't succeed. She went to Bathurst. There's some lovely pictures of her at the Royal Hotel waving from uh the balcony, and then she was on her way to Orange, but she stopped in this town called Newbridge. The boys at the pub apparently, like, okay, the Queen is pulled up at the siding at the Newbridge, like 100 metres away from the Newbridge hotel for the night. She obviously didn't make it up the hill to the pub for dinner or anything. She had quite a nice carriage. So the locals, one in particular, decided that he was going to get uh some kind of um memento of the Queen staying in Newbridge. There's like 200, maybe 500 people in the town. So his idea was to go and get a memento from the royal visit, and that was by putting a tray underneath the royal bathroom of the train. Oh yes, and ended up walking around the next day quite proudly, showing everybody in the town the royal feces that he had collected from the trip of the of the queen to Newbridge. And he was quite proud of himself. This is 1970, and so obviously, you know, some some of these stories you'd never you'd never even think were like holy moly. You'd like you if you don't go to country towns and visit these places, you don't hear these absolutely ridiculous stories. But I was like, oh, that's that like that's complete bullshit, mate. And he was like, nah, called his dad, uh, and he was like, Do you remember when Uncle Blah Blaber did that? Yeah, yeah. He was trying to sell it. Trying to sell the Queen's Pooh uh around Newbridge. Uh so anyway, that was one of my more memorable stories of uh of trips that we've been on.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

It's not something that I think that I would search for on Facebook Marketplace.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

No, probably not.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

But for 50 bucks I might pick it up. Wow. Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Where did you think where would you come up with an idea of like, oh no, you know, I know. And you know what? This is I think this is a thing as well. We're talking about a lot of the stories or a lot of the um, I guess the culture of um you know of the pubs that you go to and you tell these stories. Yeah. There's a bit of bullshit in there. You are and you know what that whole story could be completely made up, but I fucking love the story.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

It's absolutely a hundred percent true.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Yeah, it's absolutely a hundred percent true. Most of the stories are, and you don't sort of you like, come on, mate. Like, but back in the day, and this is why I think a lot of people love what we do, is that sense of nostalgia, and it's a lot of the things that happened back in the day would never happen now. Like you just mate, you couldn't. Like, oh the Royal Hotel at Caperty, we met uh a fella called Chapo. Chapo is like this most beautiful guy, he must be 75, he's got the worst hat that's held together by a thread sort of falling to pieces. And the publicans like, you've got to talk to Chapeau. And I was like, G'day Chapo, how are you going? He's like, Good, what's your story? Oh, well, my mum was uh, you know, from uh King's Cross in Sydney. Wink wink. Uh and I'm like, oh, okay. And he said, Yeah, so you know, by three, by three or four, they sent me away, and you know, I lived with my uncle and auntie for a while, and then somehow made his way to Caperty, which is one of the most beautiful places in New South Wales or the world. It's actually got uh, I think it's got the biggest canyon in the world in Caperty, New South Wales, certainly the widest canyon in the world, and it's absolutely stunning. How that is not widely known across, you know, the country, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

What we think about as the bloody Grand Canyon in Nevada.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Yeah, yeah. Well, the Grand Canyon, I think, might be the deepest, but I think the Capity is the biggest, the longest, the widest. And it is absolutely stunning. And there's this beautiful pub called the Royal Hotel, uh, where Chapo frequents most of the time, and will happily tell you about the time that he wrestled a pig that randomly came into the pub, and I'm like, come on, man. Like, yeah, and I was whopping, like huge tusks, and he grabbed a bloody board and he's pushing it outside, and sort of like, ah, right over here.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

The story's had a bit of mail over the years.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Come on, completely true. And then I'm like, okay, that's interesting. Any other stories? Because I thought, you know, like, come on, mate. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, I found a red bellied black snake. Uh because I was fencing at the time. Uh, and so I thought I'd bring it into the park. And I was playing pool, and I put it into the pocket of the pool table as a G up for the bloke that I you know that I was playing against. And I'm like, mate, that's that's not true. And he's like, oh shit, yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah, yeah, no, true. I think you got a bit excited that the the camera was on it.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

True story, apparently they had to pull the table to bits because the the snake didn't ever well didn't come out that night and the joke sort of didn't happen. They had to dismantle the pool table and they found the red bellied black snake in there and had to release it. But you don't hear that stuff every day, and this stuff used to happen all the time. Like they just were crazy back then.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

What about um I hope you know who exactly who I'm talking about because I know you've you said you've been to what 150 pubs, so you've probably met several million people. Um there's a bloke I've seen on your videos, named Bob. Bob and Bob has his particular chair. Oh Do not sit in Bob's chair.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Yeah, this is a recent video that we did at the L Rish Tavern in far north Queensland, yeah, uh just south of Cairns. Uh and I think that's it's the same in every country pub andor back in the day city pub, you know. Yeah, I'm sure it was a thing. People had their spot and you respected that. And back in the day of a lot of these places, they were work hard workers and shearers and people that worked on the land and worked really, really hard, and they came in and they had priority.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

They came in at three o'clock, or whenever their afternoon finished, and that was their chair, and they sat there and they had it and they had a few beers, or in the case of the pub that we did at Kurawatha, uh, he was a shearer, and he was sort of like every single shearer would go and have a beer and then a port. Drink your beer until there's only about that much left, and then you pour the port into the beer and you drink that. And I was like, Why? Yeah, I've never heard of that. Why would you do that? He said, he was like, I've been a shearer since I've 15 years old, I think he said. And as long as he could remember, after a shift, after like eight hours in a shearing shed and 40 degree heat, busting your back, you go and have a few beers, but every time you have a little shot of port, pop it into your beer at the end of and and drink it down.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

I'm like, oh funny, the traditions that pop up from from random things. Now, the the story I have is actually a kiwi farmer that I'm friends with that I met in Europe of all places, and we stayed mates, and he always talked about from his grandfather down as as farmers, they would almost always finish with a gin and juice. Really? And so we were in like I don't know, fucking Italy, and he was like, Oh, I want to find a gin and juice. That was just what they did. No, I don't know, that's probably not a Kiwi thing, it's probably nothing other than a family thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

I don't know, but there is a song about gin and juice. I can't remember uh whoa, it's an American singing that song, a song about gin and juice.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Can you think of any mothers that come to mind?

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Oh well, my grandfather uh was uh you know, used to enjoy a beer and uh, you know, wasn't, you know, like one of these blokes that spent every single day, all day, at the pub, but he would always have uh a rum. So he'd have a rum and a bee chaser. So but he was always like Captain Morgan's a spicy rum, and that was very common. So I think back in the day with the six o'clock swill, and you know, this is all really recent history, you know. Yeah, yeah. Things not that long ago, it was only guys, only blokes in pubs. The women's lounge uh in pubs is famous. Every country pub that we go to, like there's the women's lounge.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Yeah, only just recently heard about that. So someone who's never heard of this before.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, and but the the laws didn't change until I think it was maybe even as late as the late 60s or 70s. It's not long ago, you know, that women weren't allowed in the front bar of a pub. And bring back those times, I'd say. Bring back those times for their sake. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

No, that is a great twist.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

No, but uh a lot of the publicans used to be women. Uh back uh going back, uh a lot of the pubs were run by women because they could deal with the guys, yeah, they could sort them out, and so the women's lounge wasn't like you can't drink in the front bar, it was really you don't want to. Yeah, yeah. You go and actually have a reasonable chat, a sensible chat with the girls and let the the blokes who have been in the mines or whatever do their thing and punch each other in the head or whatever they used to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And have a nice civil drink here in the in the woods.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Yeah, so in which case not much has changed and the standard men are still pretty low.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Well, that's the thing. A lot of things have changed and significantly recently, um, that the the pubs in the country are very welcoming and very family oriented because if they're not, they're not going to survive. So a lot of people who follow us are sort of like, I remember the good old days of like the Lion's Den pub in far north Queensland, which was one of the more violent places, you would just go there and drink and fight. And there are guys, old guys, probably you know, who are affected now that were like, these were the days that were like tough and hard, and they're gone. And we don't really want to say that they were good, but a lot of people have nostalgia for some of the really old hardcore pubs where it was pretty tough, you know. You put your your beer glass upside down on the bar, and that meant you wanted to fight, and you'd get one. Yeah, so like this stuff is all gonna be lost, and like that's why I wanted to tell all of these stories and good, bad, ugly. Otherwise, a lot of these pubs are closing, and a lot of these guys don't go there anymore, and a lot of people don't go there anymore, and these stories um will be lost.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Well, okay, so people should come, look at watch the local. Watch the local. Learn more of these stories. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Yep. Two more things before we go. One pub that people should see. If you're an Australian, yeah, which one pub they should see in their lifetime? Drop by, get one off the counter.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

There's so many because I love all pubs. Like I really do like all pubs. Uh they range, they all serve a different purpose, and well, similar purposes, some very different. The one pub that's stuck out for me. I love Captain's Flat. Like, Captain's Flat is a place that's not on a main road. You have to drive there if you are going to Okay, so where is Captain's Flat? Captain's Flat is uh east of Canberra.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Uh, so it's a tiny little town, and it's a wonderful story, too. There's uh it's been closed and open and closed and open because it's not on a main thoroughfare. It is just a village sort of off the highway, and one road in, one road out. Uh, and it's become a little tiny satellite sort of village, to Canberra, but it was once a booming town. They had a tin mine there and a big population, and they built this ginormous pub. It's massive, huge two-story pub. It had the longest bar in the southern hemisphere for years.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Good record to have.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Amazing record to have, and it's been restored to pretty much its original uh exactly the way that it was when it was built 150 years ago. It is gorgeous. Uh, a uh a woman, Sharan, went, came in and bought this pub that had been closed for a couple of years. She ran away from the city and she ran away from Canberra for a minute. And she does have a quick wit. She's bloody well named. What did I get? Tim Allen. Thanks, Dad. Thanks, mum. Beauty. Why, geez, do you know how many times I get that? I guess it could be worse. The one name that I wish I had, there's a German footballer called Max Beer. Max Max Maximus Beer or something. I don't know. There's a name you could hang your hat on. Getting back to the Captain's Flat Hotel. Yeah, the Captain's Fat Hotel. Get if you can, uh, and if you're a pub enthusiast and uh a history buff, and you love tiny little quirky towns, go to Captain's Flat, um which is not far from Canberra, as I said, and check it out. You can stay the night, accommodation upstairs, the ladies' lounge upstairs and downstairs, the remnants of the longest bar in the in the southern hemisphere, and a really tight-knit community, and I think that's what I love most about it. I went there, they had no idea who we who we were, and I was like, we're just gonna do some filming and tell the story, and they're like, Right, I mate, whatever. And just sat next to us and talked to us and just were open and beautiful, and I felt welcome and really at home there. So I would say that was one of my favourite memories of doing what we do was at this pub for all the right reasons. A woman who cares about her community and does it through buying the pub and opening the pub and bringing the town back to life through the pub. And it is just a great story, a great pub. Could not recommend it highly enough. Get there, check it out.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

And so, last one, and this is maybe a little bit deep. What have you learnt about Australia?

SPEAKER_01 31:52

What do you do? Jeez. That we are a community at heart, that we are good people at heart, that we want to help each other, that we want to be connected. I am from the country, so that's why I love doing what I'm doing. The things that I miss about the country are uh the things that I miss in in Sydney are like people don't hold the door open for you. People don't ask how you're going unless you know them. That's what you get at the pub in the country. People are genuinely wanting to be connected and wanting to be part of a bigger thing than just the individual or being recognized or just surviving. I want to be part of something bigger and want to be part of um I I'm really community focused and community-minded, and I think that's what I love about what we do. So the one thing is that Aussies are deep down really good people. He's trying to do it to me again. I um yeah, I think we're good people and I think we care about each other, and I want to showcase that, and I think uh I think that happens at the pub a lot of the times. Not always but I love that, and I think we're yeah, that's pretty much us in a nutshell, and I don't want to lose our identity of going to the pub to catch up with a mate and for no particular reason, you know. I'm not going out to celebrate, not going out. I just want to be part of a bigger picture, that is being an Aussie and and having a laugh with a mate and having a beer.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

But well, I think you encompass it, mate. I want to say cheers to you for everything that you've sat down and had with me. A virtual stranger, in a sense. Um but I I I could I could turn this into 10 episodes easily because I just I just want to hear everything you have to say. I want to, you know, I want to go from here and encompass what you have to say about community and and the importance of the pub. Because it's not just the pub, but it's not just beer. It's it's everything that comes with that, and I I think you're doing a really good thing with what it is that you with what you do. And I just I watch your episodes and I feel happy. Even though it's uh even though some of the stories are heart-wrenching. Yeah. You know, I I sit in and I'm and I'm smiling, and it just it makes me want to get in the car and go out to the country and sit for a beer. So no. Uh Tim Allen from the local. Please do watch his stuff. It's awesome. It's awesome what you're doing. And um, I I'm hoping this is a start of a nice friendship. I can feel it already. And uh thank you for joining Channel Pat.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Mate. Privilege, my privilege.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Awesome. Uh well, I wanted to do this. I'm gonna finish my beer. And um cut these cameras off and I don't know what's in the video.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Aud in the beer.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Thank you for watching. As always, get in touch with us. Make sure you follow the local um on YouTube, follow on Instagram. The Facebook community is huge, get around it. You can always get in touch with us, be a part of the ChattleTap community. Um, hello at chattltap.com, follow us on Instagram, all of that jazz. Uh, but as normal, we will see you next week.