BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.

Subject: BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.
From: beardedbruce
Date: 26 Jun 08 - 12:10 PM

Crocodile welcomed into Australian pub by drinkers

Thu Jun 26, 3:50 AM ET



DARWIN, Australia - Drinkers at an Outback watering hole may have wondered if perhaps they'd had one too many when they were greeted by a crocodile at the pub's door.

But being good hosts, they did the only polite thing and invited him inside.

The saltwater croc was just 2 feet long and more a curiosity than a threat to drinkers at the Noonamah Tavern on Sunday. The aggressive hunters can grow to more than 16 feet and have been known to attack people.

Barmaid Sarah Sparre said Thursday that three patrons spotted the creature outside the pub, grabbed it and brought it inside.

"You could say we were a bit surprised," Sparre said. "He was pretty complacent, easygoing. But we weren't going to test him out."

The three men taped up its mouth, held it up for a round of photos, then put it in a box near the bar.

Sparre said the croc may have escaped from a farm for the animals that was several miles away. Wildlife officials took the crocodile to the farm.

Noonamah boasts little more than a gas station and a bar on the main north-south highway through Australia, about 25 miles from the Northern Territory capital of Darwin.

Saltwater crocodiles, once hunted to near extinction by skinners, have flourished in Australia's tropical north since they became a protected species in the 1970s.

Subject: RE: BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.
From: Leadbelly
Date: 26 Jun 08 - 12:23 PM

Nice little story,beardedbruce!

Manfred

Subject: RE: BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.
From: GUEST,aussiebloke (at work)
Date: 27 Jun 08 - 01:34 AM

Yep, that is just down the road from me. More info here:

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/06/26/4495_ntnews.html

Cheers all

aussiebloke

Subject: RE: BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.
From: Ernest
Date: 27 Jun 08 - 01:53 AM

And they are already selling commemorative polo shirts all over the world:

Noonamah Pub Polo-Shirt

;0)
Ernest

Subject: RE: BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.
From: GUEST,John Gray in Oz
Date: 27 Jun 08 - 03:03 AM

In Bruce's post the story mentions "outback watering hole".
This is our slang for a pub or bar. Not a hole full of water in the Outback where, in the north of Oz, you would expect to find crocs.
Sometimes our slang can be misleading.

JG/FME

Subject: RE: BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jun 08 - 03:16 AM

Those men will be blessed forever for showing such kindness to a stranger; the croc was a disguised divinity, visiting for fun. I'm sure this must be so! :>)


A

Subject: RE: BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 27 Jun 08 - 04:45 AM

"the croc was a disguised divinity"

Possibly, Offler the Crocdile god

Subject: RE: BS: Welcome at Aus. pub.
From: Andrez
Date: 27 Jun 08 - 06:05 AM

Yes but what was the Croc drinking and whose shout was it?

Cheers,

Andrez