Mar 2019, Whorouly, Vic

We’re camped at Whorouly Recreation Reserve and the pub, like many in the bush opens at 3 in the afternoon. We stroll over the bridge admiring the cow paddocks. Graham is the publican and an all-round nice bloke. His wife Jennifer does the cooking, they also own the cafe and do the mail run. It seems to us that they pretty much own the town. The now dry creek has flooded twice in recent times and the town has been declared a flood plain which means that no more houses can be built here.  Reading the pub paraphernalia, we note a photo on the wall of hailstones as big as tennis balls. Graham tells us that the hail storm “killed a coupl’a cows in the paddock over the road and punched holes in the pub’s tin roof”. Having a bit of a wander Toothless’ Missus goes to walk out the front door and Graham calls out “it’s an automatic door” and with that he pulls a cord behind the bar, the cord runs across the ceiling and is attached to the door, which magically opens.

The next night we walk back to the pub to honour our promise to Graham and dinner is huge. Woody has a fried egg topped mixed grill and Toothless Johnno is almost slobbering with envy. I can’t resist the lamb cutlets on mash with a mountain of veggies and lashings of gravy. Nobody cooks lamb cutlets like they do in the bush. After dinner we wander off down the road waving and shouting “g’day” to the locals and feeling pretty good about life in general. What a great spot this is.

Footnote: When we visited in March the pub had just been sold so call in and support the new owners.