The Niagara - Gundagai

I have to thank trisharooni for what transpired this morning in Gundagai.  It was a comment about my blip yesterday that led me to the Niagara Cafe for breakfast just before we headed north to the Blue Mountains and home after a wonderful stay in Melbourne.

The only disturbing element to a fantastic brekkie in the cafe was the unnerving appearance once again of that red jacketed photo bomber!!

CCN and I spent quite a lot of time examining the walls of the cafe that are covered with memorabilia.  I have to agree with trisharooni, the cafe is a walk back in time and the booths are a wonderful feature.  It is a shame that so many of these country cafes have tried to modernise instead of retaining and caring for what was a wonderful era.

I thought it would be fun to share with you the story of "The night the Prime Minister dined at the Niagra".  You can see the newspaper article taking pride of place just above the "Photo Bomber".

One Saturday night in 1942 Gundagai (NSW) cafe proprietor Jack Castrission was locking up his Niagara Cafe at exactly midnight, as usual.


Jack heard a loud banging on the front door and called out, “You’re too late, mate - we’re shut”.


When the knocking continued, Jack went to tell the would-be customer what he could do with his business.  However as he peered through the glass, Jack recognised the very well-known profile of Prime Minister John Curtin.


This put a different aspect on the subject.  Instead of hustling off the would-be customer as he had intended, Jack opened the door and said, “Goodnight, Mr Curtin”.


“I’m hungry and I’m freezing” said the Prime Minister.  “Can you do anything to help?”


“Yes,” said Jack, “you’d better come in.”


“I’ve got some mates with me in the car,” said the Prime Minister.


The mates turned out to be former Prime Minister Artie Fadden of the United Country Party, and the future Prime Minister Ben Chifley, who was then Treasurer in Curtin’s wartime Labor Government.  The other member of the group was Senator O’Sullivan a senior Government Minister.


Since the night was cold, Jack ushered his notable guests into the cafe kitchen, where he cooked a hearty meal of steak and eggs.  They had been travelling on a wartime fund-raising mission and were on their way back to Canberra.


As Jack got into conversation with the PM it turned out that his wartime tea ration of 28 pounds of tea a month was hardly enough to keep the cafe going.  Curtin nodded to O’Sullivan, who had control of such matters, and very soon after the Niagara Cafe’s tea ration was increased to 100 pounds a month.



After that, Curtin often called in at the Niagara Cafe for a cup of tea or coffee when he was passing through Gundagai.  So too did future Prime Minister Robert Menzies.