"Hold it in" at Murrumbateman

“Haha, I love situations like that. From memory the Ottoman has a similar set up. Or maybe it’s just walking through the entry with the dodgy cafe on the right I am remembering. That’s a quality look for a nice Saturday evening out!”

It can wreck your appetite. One Asian establishment in Civic has its kitchen across a dingy corridor from the restaurant and it’s filthy – you walk past tubs of soaking stuff in the hallway on your way to the toot. Then you don’t wanna eat when you get back to your table …

Have you ever seen the servo/shop in Bredbo…. out the front of it is always an A-frame sign saying in huge letters “NO TOILETS”.

Talk about en(dis?)couraging patronage to one’s establishment 🙂

I would have simply let the kid go on the servo floor. Let the attendant clean it up. Just shrug and say, “Kids, you know.”

Noting what wideboyjake (aka Scumdorg) does in toilets I would be concerned taking a 3yo to a public loo.

Trust me when I say travelling India in high 30’s with 90% humidity gives one a new found respect for public toilets back home.

Bring on IGA 🙂

Seriously, had the attendant said “you can use the pedestrian crossing” or any real information, this would have not been a complaint but a mere grumble. So to the unfamiliar in the dark, the signage for the park, the loos and the crossing are not good enough.

I do beg to differ about the speed of the trucks (and the size of them). I wouldn’t have even tried to cross the road because I am a dead set ninny, but the hubby is a bit more macho and didn’t think it was going to be as “scary” as it was.

Oh and my boy won’t be wiping bums in a nursing home. And I think I give enough to the tax system to offset adding to population.

PickedaNickname – it is unfortunate that you and your family had a bad experience, I have never needed to use that toilet and have never been there at night, but I can understand that it would be dark and it wouldn’t be nice for someone who had never been there before.

It must be noted (and has been by some others already) that
A. there is a big sign on the door of the service station saying that you can’t use their toliet and to go across the road to the park;
B. the highway is only 50kms so it is unlikely that trucks were flying past;
C. there is a brand spanking new pedestrian island in the middle of the highway for exactly that reason;
D. You would have been better off going to the pub to use the toilets but I’m sure the servo guy would have been asked not to send people over there.

I realise that the whole thing was made worse by an unhelpful servo attendant – so it may make you feel better to know that they have just been bought by an IGA and will be changing ownership soon.

Don’t let it taint your view of lovely Murrumbateman, come back one day and have lunch at the pub, visit the wineries, bring the kids to the Field Days – it’s a lovely place, just not very good public loos!

I’m sure this thread is extracting from us

At least I hope it is

AstralPlane said :

Ahhh, wideboyjake, I wonder who will be wiping your bottom in the nursing home? Hopefully not someone you’ve wasted taxes on raising as an educated, well adjusted, competent and caring individual. That would just be a drain on our resources.

who says that the kids will be working in nursing homes? they will probably be automated – a robot “decides” you are too old, and you end up as fertiliser….

remember, kids of today, leaders of tomorrow…

Hubby had to cross the road – on a dark and stormy night!

And was frightened!

Harden the F up! You’ve teamed up with a wuss and sounds like the unfortunate sprog will be raised the same.

Ahhh, wideboyjake, I wonder who will be wiping your bottom in the nursing home? Hopefully not someone you’ve wasted taxes on raising as an educated, well adjusted, competent and caring individual. That would just be a drain on our resources.

Pesty said :

G-Fresh said :

Wrost loos – males toilets at uni pub.

No way! China tea house in Erendale I nearly puked taking a leak!

kambah inn after a live show beats the others hands down. sometimes you need gumboots to get to the trough – eeewww!

Wide Boy Jake said :

A private business has every right to refuse use of its toilet or anything else it owns. You want a solution which will make everybody happy and save the taxpayer a lot of money as well? Just don’t have kids at all.

Or you could just kill yourself too?

SamTSeppo said :

Naah, Huong Viet’s (on London circuit), but only because there’s just something completely unsettling about walking through a kitchen to get to the toilet . . .

Don’t walk through, just top-up the soup!

Naah, Huong Viet’s (on London circuit), but only because there’s just something completely unsettling about walking through a kitchen to get to the toilet . . .

G-Fresh said :

Wrost loos – males toilets at uni pub.

No way! China tea house in Erendale I nearly puked taking a leak!

The fact that a kid is involved is the wild card in all this. Some kids simply won’t take a leak if the toilet conditions aren’t right (which unfortunately doesn’t include the car seat)…

I have yet to teach Young Master Berlina the joys of draining the dragon in the open countryside, but rest assured, he will learn.

Wide Boy Jake said :

A private business has every right to refuse use of its toilet or anything else it owns. You want a solution which will make everybody happy and save the taxpayer a lot of money as well? Just don’t have kids at all.

unfortunately, by the time a child is 3, it is a bit of a moot point, isn’t it? please don’t have kids on my account, more oxygen for mine….

A private business has every right to refuse use of its toilet or anything else it owns. You want a solution which will make everybody happy and save the taxpayer a lot of money as well? Just don’t have kids at all.

PickedANickname said :

I think the nay-sayers should go run across the Barton Highway on a Friday night about 6:30pm with a wiggly bag of 18 kilos of potatoes that is about to wee…….

you could have just crossed the road and gone to the Murrumbateman pub, or you could more time and energy then it worth and whine to everyone who will listen.

I have said it before and I will say it again THE STREET IS FIFTY Ks!

If you were so afraid to cross in the scary dark, why didn’t you just get back in your car and drive across to the toilets?

Caltex has been in touch. This station is privately owned and Caltex only supplies the fuel. Caltex does require it’s stations to provide a toilet for customers but they are checking in on if this also applied to the those who get the wholesale fuel.

Yass Council seems to be responsible for Murrumbateman planning etc.

I think the nay-sayers should go run across the Barton Highway on a Friday night about 6:30pm with a wiggly bag of 18 kilos of potatoes that is about to wee…….

Hopefully the solution will be that better instructions will be provided to those looking for the loo or the service station will just let people use the loo.

Wrost loos – males toilets at uni pub.

Who wants to start a new thread, Canberra’s best and worst loos?

Never tried the Benchmark toilets, but found an all time low last week – Bourbon Bar on the corner of East Row? at the bus interchange – also doubles as a cafe/restaurant of sorts.

I like the bar, food, drinks, waitresses…….but those loos, yikes!

i woulda once had a go in the trees of the service station, but with the government watching petrol stations so closely nowadays, you’d get a ‘bambam’ photo of the event posted in the riotact and bill henson after your address…

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Does the oh-so-posh Benchmark wine bar still require its patrons to use grubby, backpacker-filled loo in the Jolimont Centre?

Haha, I love situations like that. From memory the Ottoman has a similar set up. Or maybe it’s just walking through the entry with the dodgy cafe on the right I am remembering. That’s a quality look for a nice Saturday evening out!

Does the oh-so-posh Benchmark wine bar still require its patrons to use grubby, backpacker-filled loo in the Jolimont Centre?

Blamemonkey said :

This just seems way to dramatic, A busy highway is BULLSH*T it is 50ks through Murrumbateman, and people who frequently drive through there know it is a favourite spot for the police to camp.

I am sorry for your inconvenience but seriously have a big glass of concrete and harden up.

I think that the problem is that those travellers who don’t go through murrumbateman regularly sometimes think that 50km/h is an advisory – I have had a similar experience with a vic plated driver that almost joined me in the back seat….

This just seems way to dramatic, A busy highway is BULLSH*T it is 50ks through Murrumbateman, and people who frequently drive through there know it is a favourite spot for the police to camp.

I am sorry for your inconvenience but seriously have a big glass of concrete and harden up.

Holden Caulfield said :

What has Yass Council got to do with it?

Keep some white paint and a paintbrush in the car and you ca paint your own emergency pedestrian crossing.

Agree that the situation is a bit of a farce though.

but with the way that the world is going, there will soon be no toilets at “service” stations, not ones that the public users can access.

I work in phillip, the public toilet in colbee court isn’t the most attractive venue after 3 or 4 coffees at a meeting at the chocolate olive, but as they have no toilet, it is the only option. (and they serve hot food at the olive)

Who to complain to?

Caltex obviously and the franchise operator but this is the sort of trivial crap that ACA would love to do something with – Give ’em a call 🙂

What has Yass Council got to do with it?

Keep some white paint and a paintbrush in the car and you ca paint your own emergency pedestrian crossing.

Agree that the situation is a bit of a farce though.

I was talking to the hubby about posting and what contact I have been making. This is what he wrote…
===========================================
I couldn’t see anything but darkness so I crossed the road thinking it must be there somewhere, and was annoyed to find it well inside a dark park, across a bridge and not well marked. Trucks were screaming up and down the highway. “Son” was frightened by the noise and rush of wind as each truck rumbled past, combined with cold and darkness. There was no safe crossing point (traffic light or pedestrian crossing). Had I known in advance to use the public toilets, and of their location, I would have parked nearby, but when one stops at a service station and buys petrol, one assumes that toilets are available for use the of customers. I have never in all my life, seen a service station that did not provide this. It must be very common for people to make this assumption, only to find themselves having to cross a busy highway.
==================================

I was in the car and didn’t know my hubby was out crossing the road. It was busy and it was very dark. I would of had my boy have a tinkle on the servo if it had been me. Ok not really I wouldn’t have but I would have thought about it.

Any thoughts on who to complain to? Gone to the corporate and to Yass council.

I agree! Crossing streets and highways is a dangerous proposition these days (I think last year more people were killed in the ACT while attempting crossings than died during the entire Second Boer War). Personally, I blame those damned greenies and their silent cars. God knows that it’s next to impossible to hear approaching traffic at night when it’s running on carbon-neutral electric motors. If only the “Lights Off For The Environment!” crowd hadn’t been elected, drivers would still be motoring at night with their headlights on.

It’s a damned travesty, it is.

There is at least one restaurant in Woden that has no toilets.

Yeah, but I think the malls must fall under a group category, otherwise all food court outlets would require their own…

I think I would rather go behind a bush rather than a petrol station toilet anyways.

I feel the same, however I am interested to know if the law requires them to provide facilities on site, or if ready access to the public loos is sufficient.

I think I would rather go behind a bush rather than a petrol station toilet anyways.

Did your husband have huge problems crossing the road with the 50 kilometre speed limit?

Or do just feel inconvenienced?

There is at least one restaurant in Woden that has no toilets. Instead customers are told to use the toilets in the mall. By my estimation the toilets are around 200 metres from the restaurant.

As for pickedanickname, this was a golden opportunity for your son to learn the joys of weeing in the surrounds of nature, like under the nearest tree or against the back door of the offending Caltex.

Just between the Riotact and the Duke, I find watering the ivy of a crisp winters evening a hearty thrill indeed, especially after a big drink – water saving too peoples!

I have no idea Meconium but it’s a disappointing requirement if it is.

Meconium is dead right. If a NSW business sells ANY food, they are legally required to provide toilet facilities. No, ‘if’s, but’s or maybees’.

McDonalds in George Street Sydney locked their toilets to keep junkies out and were fined. I think its under a section of the planning Act but cant remember which one. It’s been about 20 years since I covered it.

Is there no legal requirement to allow paying customers to use a toilet if they need to? I thought there was, if a place served food. Surely the servo sells meat pies?