Adelaide River Inn

July  8,   2002

 

Today we found another of Australia's Hollywood relics.  This is the Adelaide River Inn where we found Charlie the Water Buffalo at the .303 bar.  The .303 bar is a bit of art work written in .303 caliber bullet shells.  Lots of the pubs and inns around this part of the country were established or improved during the War.  Just as many have artwork in ammunition or at least a good collection of them behind the counter.  

Charlie, the Water Buffalo pictured here with yours truly, was featured in the movie Crocodile Dundee.  You may remember Paul Hogan stared this buffalo down and used his magical outback power to calm him down.  Well, a few years ago Charlie died and it was such big news that the local newspaper ran that story as a headline.  The pub and the city then came up with about twenty thousand dollars and had Charlie stuffed.  He now proudly stands on the bar, cheerfully welcomes the tourists, and smiles for pictures. 

 

This is the old train station in Pine Creek.  This used to be a train to haul out the ore from the silver and copper mines.  They restored the engine in 1997 to running condition.  The old bloke selling souvenirs said they had it running about 6 months ago.  Another thing I noticed about the rail road, nobody else really cared, was the steel sleepers or ties.  Normally these are made of wood or concrete.  Herman had a chance at the throttle for a moment.

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