Designed to promote animal industry and agriculture , it was named after Tortilla Flat in John Steinbeck's novel .
One of the watering holes frequented by Wesley-Smith in those days was the Adelaide River Inn , run by wonderful Myrtle Fawcett , where Charlie, the famous buffalo (above ), mesmerised by Crocodile Dundee , ended up years later. Wes recalled that poor Charlie was given a needle by a veterinarian to make him keel over for Paul Hogan in the memorable scene.
In the l960s the Adelaide River Inn boasted a dentist's chair in the public bar, donated by former Darwin fang doctor, Jim Gaffney . After a hard week of work , members of the Tortilla Flats station and horticultural block holders often gathered there on Saturday night. Some started on Friday night.
Wes, who drank lemonade in those days , said there was a guy who quickly downed beer by the jug.
Responding to the Little Darwin post, a former Darwin resident , Bob White, surfaced and said Saturday nights at the Adelaide River Inn were never to be missed.
It was a real bushies pub , the only place he sang Ted Egan's Down the Daly River,Oh!, with a chorus of Territorians , all three sheets to the wind . Egan also wrote the song about bloody good drinkers in the Northern Territory, eventually became the NT Administrator .
It is said tourists who called into the pub often stayed for a lost week , entertained by the Bull Ring.
Wes has another intriguing anecdote about the part in Crocodile Dundee where Hogan stabbed a crocodile in the head to save his girlfriend , which caused the same veterinarian who needled Charlie to shout out that it was not possible to kill a saurian with a knife because of its thick skull , but was told this was a film ,so anything was possible.
One of the those who worked on a block in those days was saxophone player, the late Brian Manning, who, like Wesley-Smith, became a great activist, involved in many campaigns with the crusading editor of the Northern Territory News , the late Jim Bowditch.
One of their campaigns involved hiding the Stayput Malays, indentured pearl divers who did not want to be deported from Australia following the collapse of the pearlshell industry due to plastics in button making.
