THAT’S not a festival, this is a festival!
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Perhaps that’s what Paul Hogan might have said had he made to McKinlay on the weekend.
The town’s pub, the Walkabout Creek Hotel was buzzing for the Crocodile Dundee festival, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the movie that made Hogan – and the pub – world famous, with of population normally around 15 swelling to 500.
Hogan was busy in America but co-star from Crocodile Dundee II Ernie Dingo was on hand to share his memories of the film and tell a few jokes.
“I’m not sure how many people are here but an easy way to find out is to count all the number of legs here and divide by two,” Mr Dingo said.
Mr Dingo said the film was iconic and it had a big effect on his career.
“We had a lot of fun making the movie and it was one of my favourites,” he said.
“The thing I like about it is that there is only one person killed in the whole movie, it’s a real family film.”
McKinlay mayor Belinda Murphy said the turn-out at the festival was testament to the popularity of Crocodile Dundee.
“There wouldn’t be many Australians who haven’t seen Crocodile Dundee and know at least one or two lines from the movie,” Cr Murphy.
She acknowledged pub owners Frank and Debbie Worth for hosting the festival.
“They’ve been in McKinlay for two years, they bought Walkabout Creek on a whim, I think, and they’ve done a lot with this pub to support the town, they’re doing an amazing job,” she said.
Frank Worth said they were contacted out of the blue by a family assistant of the film’s director John Cornell.
“They were going to donate a heap of stuff to the Australian Film Academy and she asked me did I want the truck (from the movie),” Frank said.
“It wasn’t in great condition but it wasn’t real flash when it was in the movie anyway so it didn’t matter.”
Four months later the assistant contacted Frank again to say the Australian Film Academy didn’t have room for the other memorabilia and she asked if they wanted it.
“We’ve now got the old bar from the movie set out the back,” he said.
“We’ve also got the original ute too.”
The Festival was full of fans of the movie with many that the North West Star spoke to saying they had seen it many times over.
Chris McDonald of Cloncurry recalls going to see filming in Fountain Springs.
“We tried to talk to Paul Hogan but he wasn’t too friendly,” she said.
Walkabout Creek will remain in the news this week with Channel Nine’s Today show broadcasting their weather from the pub on Wednesday.
Originally published as McKinlay’s Big Croc Creek by The North West Star.