Super cool location, felt pretty unreal actually being there… shame you can’t go inside any more
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Went there during a school camp in 1988. I remember there being a huge cage with cockies inside. Signs on the dunny doors read “Blokes” and “Sheilas”.
They still had them when I was there!
Can somebody please translate the name of this place into Americanese? Because my dumb ass can neither pronounce or understand the word “Ettamogah.”
It’s apparently a Wiradjuri word meaning “place of good drink”.
I say apparently because I can’t find it in my Wiradjuri dictionary app.
LOL so it’s an Aboriginal word for “Kick-Ass Bar?”
Reading further into it, it seemed to have been the name of a watering hole in the area.
So yeah, pretty much
@Etterra @FireWire400 I can translate it into Australian: Etto
Why would you wanna abbreviate words that are so fun to say?
Unsure if you know but we had one in Queensland up the Sunny coast. Next to the motorway. I think that’s gone.
Perth also had one, but it closed down 20 years ago. Two businesses have since occupied the building, but both have died.
You can see how the building would have looked with the angular awnings etc. but they were made boring after the Ettamogah closed down.
I’m kinda aware that there were 4 Ettamogah Pubs in total, but I don’t know where and I can’t find anything about the other ones
Edit: Seems like the only one that’s still in operation as Ettamogah Pub is the one in Cunderdin, WA.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere the one in Albury seems to have been renamed… Looks like I need to go to Cunderdin lol
Interesting that the previous owner of the Pub in Albury had these grand plans of a caravan park and a petrol station, even read somewhere that they wanted to build it into a theme park.
Obviously didn’t go too well for them…
It is gone. Absolute monstrosity now.
Street view image.
Oh God. I’ve driven past the place since the other one went ( a fair few years I think ) I must say I don’t think I’ve seen that thing. How long has that been there ?
Years. Not sure how many but a lot.
Edit: this website says 2019.
Mhhh… Looked up some reviews on Google and the owner’s responses are either hopeful that they can return the place to its former glory, blaming the previous owners for its current state, dismissive of any criticism or completely unhinged…
As I’ve mentioned, you can’t actually go inside anymore, they closed down the souvenir shop and the website refers to the place as “Table Top Hotel (Formally Ettamogah)” The only thing that’s open there is a café next to the actual pub.
I hope they won’t close it down or anything, it needs to be preserved in some way IMO…
Place was OK to visit as a kid, issue is and has always been it’s too far away from anything else.
Like sure let’s go & have lunch I can have maybe two schooners, but the drive there and back on any day of the week is going to consume someone’s whole break (~15 mins each way)
Weekend is the same thing, without a courtesy bus any group without a dessie or two just aren’t going to go. Prices from memory aren’t anything special, there’s little novelty left it’s just a bit sad to see.
Yeah, someone mentioned to me how it used to be next to the highway but then said highway was rebuilt to bypass Albury or something.
It’s still not that far away in my opinion but it’s not exactly walking distance from anywhere. The place was pretty empty when we went there, there were a few people in the cafe but it kinda stank of grease so we didn’t go.
It’s really a shame to see such a delightful and iconic place go downhill, the people I went with thought so as well.
I’ve been there, back in the mid 1990s.
It must’ve been amazing back then. My relatives kept telling me how popular it was with tourists.
I don’t have much recollection of the pub, though I do have a picture of it. I was doing the “Oz Experience” bus tour, so naturally they hit all the tourist spots. It was a great trip.
I’d love seeing that picture, if you wanna show it
I found it. The pic was taken in 1995. It was a film print and I don’t currently have access to a scanner, so I snapped a pic with my phone (sorry about the quality). I think I took the pic because the amusing words on the side struck me as very Australian, and I’m sure I was probably told of its significance.
I actually don’t know the significance of the words, must be in reference to the Ettamogah Pub comic strip that inspired the building. But you’re right, it’s kinda amusing how Aussie it is; I couldn’t help but chuckle when first reading it^^
Thanks heaps for sharing!
I’ll see if I can dig it up.
