Mt Helena Tavern celebrates Australia Day eve with thong toss and other fun activities

Darren “Fergie” Ferguson reckons he was born with double pluggers on his feet. So he thinks he will be a shoo-in at the annual Australia Day thong toss at the Mt Helena Tavern at the weekend. While some of the country’s biggest pubs continue to shun the national day on January 26, the Perth Hills establishment is proudly celebrating. The thong toss, the main attraction on the day, involves chucking a plugger closest to the bullseye spray-painted on the grass. Mr Ferguson and his mate, Bob Smith — who have been regulars at the pub for 40 years — are planning to go eye-to-eye in the competition. “I can’t get my thongs off anymore — not with these bunions,” Mr Smith said. “I was basically born with them on,” Mr Ferguson added. The pair were not prepared to reveal their thong tossing secrets ahead of the competition. But they said they would both be pulling out a special pair of thongs for the day. “I don’t see much competition to be honest,” Mr Smith said. “I’ve looked around and seen the calibre of contestants so I might put in an appearance. “I’m currently wearing my going out thongs but my throwing thongs are in a temperature-controlled room ready to go.” Mt Helena Tavern’s marketing manager Sarah Broadbent said the classic Aussie game had been popular among the local crowd since she introduced it to the pub three years ago. “It is hot in Aussie summer and especially Perth, so normally everyone’s wearing thongs or sandals so everyone is ready to go,” she said. The pub is also getting in the spirit with some reinvented Aussie classics including lamington and Tim Tam martinis, and a burger with Vegemite aioli. And getting punters up to dance to the Nutbush will be a new tradition — potentially making it Perth’s ultimate Australia Day pub. But not every Aussie pub will be doing the same this year. Hong Kong-owned Australian Venue Co earlier this year chose to ban Australia Day celebrations at its 200+ venues, before back-pedalling on its decision, stating it wasn’t its intention to “offend anyone”. The business has chosen to instead hold celebrations acknowledging the long weekend. It prompted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to accuse the business of profiting from the public holiday, and not honouring the wishes of a “vast majority of Australians”. “(Why should a business) reap a huge profit off the back of hard-working Australians, when they would shun the wishes of those Australians?” he said. He went a step further and called on patrons to contact Australian Venue Co — which owns more than 20 WA venues, including The Raffles Hotel, The Court and The Claremont Hotel. “I would encourage them to call the company and express their view and express that they don’t support this abandonment of our national day,” he said. “What other country, what other Western civilisation, abandons its national day? We shouldn’t and Australia Day should be a great celebration of an amazing country.” Ms Broadbent said she found Australian Venue Co’s decision “strange”. “I like what we do as it’s more of a community coming together and we all get to have fun, play some games, and celebrate together,” she said. “We can just celebrate living in Australia because we are very fortunate, especially with other countries and how they’re going, it’s not so great.” Ms Broadbent said the Mt Helena Tavern was the perfect pub to celebrate Australia Day at as it was a classic pub that had been a part of her family since 1902. “The actual structure and the look of the pub is pretty much the same since 1902, which is definitely something that we pride ourselves on because she is very, very original and Aussie,” she said.