Places and Prime Ministers

For example, on recent round trips from Canberra to Melbourne I have stopped at Gundagai and had something to eat at a place I did not know of until recently. It's called The Niagara and describes itself as a Restaurant and Coffee Lounge. But for more than 50 years, ever since Prime Minister John Curtin stopped in there (with a small group of other famous political figures of the time) one cold wintry wartime night, it has been a sort of political watering hole and a lure for travelling Prime Ministers to say that they also stopped there for a feed.  Gough Whitlam had stopped by on a number of occasions,  Bob Hawke had dropped in, maybe Sir Robert Menzies, but I would have to check that.  There are signed pictures and newspaper accounts of the visits and other memorabilia.  I read on the wall by the booth I sat in quite a detailed story of Curtin's stop in.  It was after midnight, The Niagara was closed and John Curtin rapped at the door and told the drowsy proprietor that he was cold and hungry and could The Niagara rustle up a feed for Curtin and his party that consisted of  three others, I think, big names of their time. Frank Forde, himself a Prime Minister for 6 days or so following Curtin's death and Ben Chifley's taking on the post, may have been one of them, although my intuition tells me that more would have been made of it had that been so.  In any event, the proprietor took Curtin's party into the kitchen and fed them up, I think, on steak and eggs. Now that I have started this blog on Prime Ministerial places I owe it to all to pin down the details, which I will do as time goes by. I haven't even a photo to post, although I did souvenir a napkin which I will scan and add, or try to add, until I come along with something better.