Crocodile Dundee pub is for sale

Want to buy a piece of movie history? Wrestle crocodiles and relive the 1980s? Now you can, because the Walkabout Creek Hotel, location of some of the most memorable scenes from the 1986 hit film Crocodile Dundee, is up for sale.

Located in the small town of McKinlay in Queensland, northeast Australia, it’s on the Matilda Highway and gets good business from both Australians and tourists. It was previously named the Federal Hotel but was called the Walkabout Creek Hotel in the movie. When the movie became a hit the owners changed the name. It was originally built in 1900.

Needless to say, the place is filled with movie memorabilia and is a pilgrimage site for movie buffs visiting the Outback.

Crocodile Dundee, a sensitive and realistic portrayal of Australian rural life (sarcasm) was part of the boom in the Australian film industry during the 1970s and 1980s. The boom started when the eerie 1975 mystery Picnic at Hanging Rock received international acclaim. The working class drama Sunday Too Far Away became a hit that same year.

Mad Max came out in 1979 and launched a trilogy of hugely popular films. Plans to make a fourth Mad Max film experienced long delays and now it appears the fourth movie will instead be a remake of Mad Max 2 (released as Road Warrior in the U.S.) and will be titled Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s due to be released in 2012.

Thrill Seekers Can Swim Nose to Nose with Crocs in Australia

Adventurers needn’t head to the Outback to get a taste of what it is like to be eye-to-eye with Australian wildlife. A new attraction at Crocosaurus Cove, in Darwin, Northern Territory, allows divers to come within inches of giant saltwater crocodiles. A mask and swimsuit is all that is required for those who want to enter the “Cage of Death.” The transparent “cage” is made from 5-inch-thick acrylic. It moves on runners through 4 croc pens housing animals that 18 feet long and weigh over 1 ton. The “ride” takes about 20 minutes.

Despite their legendary status, crocodiles attacks are rare. Warning signs are displayed on lakes and rivers inhabited by the giant beasts. On average, there are only 1 or two croc-related deaths per year. That probably doesn’t lessen the amount of adrenaline that comes from being face-to-face with the toothy creatures, separated by only 5 inches of glass.

[Via Reuters]

At Least She Didn’t Say “Fair Suck of the Saveloy…”

Isn’t it great how we all speak English? Who needs Esperanto when the global interweb is surging forward with a solid grounding of the Queen of England’s Mother Tongue? Well, despite the worldwide spread of English, it seems a few of us still struggle to be understood in a supposedly language-friendly country.

On a recent SkyWest Airlines flight, Australian Sophie Reynolds dared to utter the Downunder phrase “Fair Dinkum” in response to the sad news that the plane was all out of pretzels. As fans of Crocodile Dundee may know, it’s a colloquial expression meaning “Seriously?” or “For real?”, but unfortunately Reynolds was reprimanded by the crew for swearing. Her passport was requested, and upon landing in Pittsburgh three uniformed police officers were waiting for her. The authorities finally got the right end of the stick, and Reynolds was eventually allowed to go. There’s still no word if she finally got some pretzels.

Thanks to avriette on Flickr for the picture of a tastier kind of pretzel.