Walkabout Creek Hotel / Australia

Aussie come on, this is the home of the famous Crocodile Dundee pub.
McKinlay’s great claim to fame is that the local pub, now known as the Walkabout Creek Hotel, was featured in the original “Crocodile Dundee” movie as Dundee’s regular drinking spot. Known originally as the Federal McKinlay Hotel it was sold for $290 000 after the movie had been made and the current owners, while maintaining the rough and tumble feel of the original, are committed to promoting it as the town’s one tourist attraction. It is a subtle combination of the outback and the sophisticated.
Located south east of Cloncurry, McKinlay was named after the McKinlay River which was discovered and named by the explorer John McKinlay. McKinlay had arrived in New South Wales in 1836 and by 1861 had become such an adept bushman that he was chosen to lead the South Australian Burke Relief Expedition to search for the missing Burke and Wills.
There was no immediate rush to the area. Captain James Henry, the founder of Cloncurry, passed through the area in 1866 as did George McGillivray the following year. Gold was discovered on the McKinlay- Cloncurry road in 1872. In 1883 a letter receiving office was opened in the small settlement.
It wasn’t until 1888 that allotments of land in McKinlay were sold and seventeen people bought half-acre blocks. The town grew as a service centre for the surrounding pastoralists but it was never going to become a major centre. Even today, with the interest generated by Crocodile Dundee, it is really nothing more than a couple of stores, a few houses and a pub. Like so much of western Queensland any future that it might have had was destroyed with the arrival of motor vehicles and farm mechanisation.
Anyone wanting to know more about the town should consult the McKinlay Centenary 1888-1988 which is available from the Walkabout Creek Hotel.
When the building originally known as the Federal McKinlay Hotel featured in the first Crocodile Dundee movie it was sold for $290 000. While maintaining the rough and tumble feel of the original, the new owners are committed to promoting it as the town’s one tourist attraction. It is a subtle combination of the outback and the sophisticated…
Quantas will bring you to Sydney.
Qantas frequent flyers will find it easier to snare an upgrade with the launch of ‘at the gate’ upgrades, as the airline aims to fill premium seats left empty due to passenger no-shows and missed connections.
Available for both domestic and international flights, the new system – which the airline began trialling in May – processes upgrade requests almost until the flight itself is closed.
Previously there was a five hour cut-off for international flights, leaving a window in which passengers booked on a flight may not actually check in.
This would leave their seat vacant, much to the chagrin of frequent flyers who’d applied for an upgrade but been knocked back – but then spy those empty seats when they walk on board.
Justin Hyams (Head of Airline Loyalty for Qantas Frequent Flyer) told House & Hotel Magazin , is more than aware this raises the hackles of the frequent traveller.
“We’d previously have customers request an upgrade, we’d say no because we thought the aircraft was full, but they’d get on the aircraft and see an empty seat which they were more than willing to use their points to get.”
“Most no-shows are missed connections and that’s more likely to happen in hub airports” Hyams tells Australian Business Traveller.
“You take Los Angeles, where you have people connecting from American Airlines and many other carriers. You’ve got Singapore and even in Sydney there are domestic transfers connecting through.”
Single-leg upgrades also possible

Another benefit of the new system is that is journeys involving two flights, such as Sydney-Singapore-London, can be handled as two individual segments.
Under the old system, if a Sydney-London travellers puts in an upgrade request it’s only approved if there are seats available on both segments.
“This is a bug bear for our customers, especially where certain segments on the journey are more important” Hyams explains.
“For example, being able to get an upgrade from Singapore to London is more important because it’s the longer leg of the journey, you’re flying overnight to London and you arrive into London very early, so it’s very nice to be able to have a partial upgrade.”
Any seats left vacant after points-based upgrades have been processed are still available for one-off upgrades of high-status passengers, beginning with Platinum One and Platinum frequent flyers.
“Those upgrades will still happen because we still want to surprise and delight out customers” Hyams says.
However, the new upgrade system is clearly aimed at turning empty seats into a commercial gain rather than a freebie.

The new system will also let travellers on domestic flights more easily manage their upgrade requests.
“Currently if there’s a domestic business class seat available you’ll get it right away” Hyams says.
“But, if there isn’t a seat available you have to keep going back to request it again, and hope one will come up.”
“Now you can register and you’ll be informed by SMS to your phone when a seat comes up all the way through to departure.”
Solo travellers only, for now…
Under the new system, travellers need to opt in to register for upgrades through to the gate – and Hyams says that, for now, it only caters for single passengers travelling on a single ticket rather than a joint booking of two or more people per ticket.
“For stage one we are focussing on single travellers in the opt-in, because the ones we were missing were mostly single travellers who we can more easily upgrade at the gate” Hyams says.
“We’re working on multiple travellers as a second stage, because we need some new technology to deliver upgrades for multiple passengers in a booking.”

Keep goin.