Mackay is a fairy typical small rural city which has had its city centre ruined by the advent of Shopping Malls out of town. They have not yet regenerated the City Centre into a entertainment hub like Townsville. Here’s hoping they do soon.
We went up into the hills to Eungella National park to see if we could spot a Platypus and solve the linguistic problem that has plagued generations of Aussie schoolchildren -What is the plural of Platypus is it Platypuses, Platypus’s, Platypi or just plain Platypus? Well actually all are wrong it is Platypodes which is derived from the ancient Greek grammar as this is where the name platypus comes from. Sorry my inner Grammar Nazi escaped for a minute, please rest assured it has been wrestled to the ground, thoroughly beaten into submission and put back in its box.
They also have turtles – we think this one was called Donatello!
Pies
Stopped for lunch on the way back at the Pinnacle Hotel and had a Steak and Kidney Pie, Chips, Mushy Peas and gravy for $13.50 bargain and a new leader int he best Pie contest (See next post).
There is quite a story behind the pub so here it is.
A construction site, 400 hungry men, and leftover roast dinner — the almighty story behind the famous Pinnacle pie.
Sixty kilometres west of Mackay in north Queensland’s Pioneer Valley, sits the Pinnacle Family Hotel. The once humble, weatherboard pub, is known for its baking — rather than its beer and current owners Karen and Andrew Guthrie say they feel lucky to be a part of the ongoing story.
“In the late-1800s, the Hotel was built in Pinnacle,” Mr Guthrie said. “It was actually built over the road, and the councillors of the day discovered that the main road was going to be on the other side, so they moved it right across.
“They put big logs under it and pushed it all the way across and moved it — it’s quite comical,” he said.
PHOTO: The Pinnacle Hotel in 1903. (Supplied: Glen Hall)
The Pinnacle found its pie
After the pub changed locations, Mr Guthrie said the hotel was renamed the Terminus Hotel, because of it proximity to the railway line.
“In 1927 it burnt down, and they got this little block of land and built it here, so in 1930 it reopened as the Pinnacle Hotel,” he said.
But Mr Guthrie said it was another 70 years before the Pinnacle found its pie.
“In 1992 [owners] Fred and Wendy Goodall were lucky enough to have about 400 men staying out the back in dongas building Teemburra Dam,” Mr Guthrie said.
“She used to always have big roast nights for the men, and instead of throwing the meat and veggies out she’d make a big family pie for the men to take.”
“That’s how it started, and once Teemburra was built, well the Pinnacle Pie had to stay, didn’t it?”
Since 1992, My Gurthrie said there have been around seven couples that have owned what is now called the Pinnacle Family Hotel. Each and every one of them putting their own twist on the Pinnacle pie.
“They diverted them down to a little pie, three of four varieties, then over the years, the owners kept them up, and then we got six pies, and now we’re up to 11 pies,” he said.