Almanac (Country) Life: More than a beer

 

 

I was road-testing my Hyundai I30 and returning from the ASSH (Australian Society for Sports History) conference in Canberra with Saturday (15 July) Barham to Adelaide the second leg. (WARNING incidentally, regarding those narrow secondary roads to Ouyen where it was necessary to leave the bitumen with two wheels cresting hills and cutting speed to 60kph in the event of a car barreling along at 100kph in the opposite direction.)

 

 

 

 

Murrayville is the hometown of basketball legend Rachael Sporn and a sign boasting tasty home-made coffee at the Op Shop caught my eye although in vain as it was a weekday specialty. While searching for the coffee, however, a second sign by the side of the pub beckoned me elsewhere viz. ‘Carlton Draught – Arguably the Best Beer in the Mallee’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entering the front bar of the Mallee Fowl Hotel I told the proprietor, who resembled Old Steptoe (Wilfred Brambell) from the 1960s TV show, that I’d better have a pint even though there was no one else in the pub to argue with.

 

Instead, there was a treasure-trove of sporting history and memory, some national and some local, an indicator of how important country pubs and sport are to small communities.

 

Having ascertained that I knew something about cricket Old Steptoe (OS) told me how much he was enjoying the current Ashes series – ‘real cricket, Test cricket’ – and perhaps that love was best represented by the 1990s poster of Australian Test cricketers marketed by the sportswriter Jack Pollard.

 

 

 

 

There were other wonderful sporting remnants too – the Boxing Kangaroo which epitomised Australia II’s triumph in the 1983 America’s Cup and the horse racing photos, one depicting Arwon, winner of the 1978 Melbourne Cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But more important was the material devoted to local sport, the pool table and dart board taking pride of place – as they should – and the memorabilia on shelves and walls, most notably the Mallee Stump Trophy for darts and the pennants won by women’s and junior basketball teams. When I remarked on the magnificent (if casual) display OS said they had lot more sports history at the local museum and he could ring a bloke who would open it up for me. Sadly, I didn’t have time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murrayville appears to be doing things hard, like a lot of bush towns all over the country, and as evidence of this a row of shops over the road stood derelict with the corner newsagency having closed its doors only a week before.

 

 

 

 

However, where there’s life there’s hope. OS asked whether I had time to see the footy match starting at 3pm. Sadly, I didn’t. The Murrayville Football Club was playing its first home game for the season and celebrating the opening of its new clubrooms, a source of pride. The club had also maintained its identity, avoided merging (like Pinnaroo-Lameroo) but been forced to join the faraway Riverland Independent Football League including teams from the smaller towns of the Upper Murray in South Australia such as Blanchetown and Ramco, some at distances of more than 200 kilometres.

 

I regretted not having time to visit the museum and the footy. The beer I sampled (Carlton Draught) was like any other Carlton Draught but the stop at the Mallee Fowl Hotel was a delightful experience and for anyone driving through is definitely one to savour.

 

 

 

*All photos taken by the author

 

Read more from Bernard Whimpress HERE.

 

 

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