There ain't much at Yongala. It's not far from Terowie, where General MacArthur was 'doorstepped" by reporters and said "I came out of Bataan and I shall return".
So Terowie is far more famous - there's a plaque on the old platform.
Yongala is on a railway line too, but the next town up the line, Peterborough, was the major service town.
So Yongala withered somewhat.
However, the small population takes a lot of pride in keeping their homes and town tidy, there's free camping and RV parking, and in about 2015-ish, a couple of visionaries bought the derelict Globe Hotel and commenced renovations.
So now, there are plenty of reasons to stop instead of driving through.
Yesterday, Yongala held its first Christmas Pageant.
The wife was working until 2 pm, so we weren't able to get there in time for the pageant at 3, but we made it in time to see Santa at the pub, buy a few tickets in the Christmas stocking raffle, watch the band and have a couple of pizzas for dinner before the long drive back.
We arrived just after the pageant. The market stalls were packing up, and the pub was packed. Free range kids everywhere, all excited to see Santa and fascinated by the live band.
This is a proper country pub, your kids will come to no harm if you take your eyes off them for a few minutes. Same with your wallet, phone and change.
It's the best atmosphere around. The crowd is a mixture. You'll get the local farmers, people from all the surrounding towns, tourists blowing through, even a couple of New Zealanders last night. We drive 60 miles to get there, it's that good.
The publican is almost a one man band, it's just him most of the time, and a helper or two behind the bar when he needs them.
He does the cooking as well.
So when there's a special event on and he knows its going to be really busy, the kitchen is not full service.
He'll do something like pizzas only, or maybe a lamb or something on the spit. Or he will close the kitchen and get one of the local clubs like Lions or a footy club to cater a BBQ.
Last night was pizza.
There is no doubt Aussies where I live like lots of toppings on their pizzas, and Darryl at Yongala is a fine exponent of the art of what I call Fat Aussie Pub Pizza.
The wife had the seafood marinara.
I detected prawns, mussels, octopus, squid, maybe a hint of anchovy. Edit - the wife reckons no anchovy. No matter, wasn't room anyway. These things are loaded.
I had the vegetarian.
Red and green capsicum, slices of tomato, onion, black olives, mushroom, pineapple, can't remember what else.
Served in takeaway boxes - highly appropriate when you are eating in the beer garden under the grapevines.
