Pat's Uninteresting Tours was a series of themed route bus tours that offered an alternative to the usual sightseeing tours. Taking passengers on a four hour comedy excursion to downmarket locations it operated in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia during the mid to late 1980s. 

The premise was to conduct paying passengers on a bus and expose them to ordinary situations in incongruous contexts - actively avoiding normal tourist attractions and visiting uninteresting sites. These included wine tasting

Wine tasting

Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onwards...

 at a rubbish tip, "experiencing fresh air" at the sewage works and formal dinner at a road-side diner

Diner

A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...

. Passengers were encouraged to dress in tourist garb for the day tours and tacky evening wear for night tours. After TV New Zealand program That's Fairly Interesting

That's Fairly Interesting

That's Fairly Interesting was a New Zealand TV series showcasing quirky people and events.Its title is a reference to the TV show That's Incredible!....

recorded a segment, tours were conducted in Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, Palmerston North

Palmerston North

Palmerston North is the main city of the Manawatu-Wanganui region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is an inland city with a population of and is the country's seventh largest city and eighth largest urban area. Palmerston North is located in the eastern Manawatu Plains near the north bank...

 and later Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

.

Beginnings

Patrick McGeown created the concept in 1978 whilst serving on board the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 warship HMAS Perth. After repeated trips to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, he began to lead alternative sightseeing events for other crewmates. Following the inaugural tour he then conducted tours in Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

 and Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

 before launching the concept as a business in Sydney on 17 March 1985.

Destinations

Each tour was unique and the four hours of improvisation and creativity took passengers to an assortment of locations.  Some Sydney locations were:

• Various industry by day/night
• Eastern Suburbs Crematorium
• Long Bay Gaol
• Malabar
  Malabar, New South Wales
  Malabar is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Malabar is located 12 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Randwick.-Location:...
  
   Sewerage Treatment Works
• Kings Cross
  Kings Cross, New South Wales
  Kings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
  
   red light district
  Red Light District
  Red Light District may refer to:* Red-light district - a neighborhood where prostitution is common* The Red Light District - the title of the 2004 album by rapper Ludacris* Red Light District Video - a pornography studio based in Los Angeles, California...
  
   to sing Christmas Carols at El Alamein Fountain
  El Alamein Fountain
  The El Alamein Memorial Fountain is a fountain and war memorial in the city of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located in the Kings Cross area, at the entrance to the Fitzroy Gardens on the corner of Darlingurst Road and Macleay Street...
  
  
• Downmarket pub
• Rubbish tip
• Traffic roundabout
• Venereal Disease
  VD
  VD may stand for:* Valentine's Day* The Vampire Diaries* Vapor Density* Vaud, a canton in Switzerland* Vd, design diving speed for an aircraft, see V speeds for further information* Ivan "Vd" Vdović , Serbian drummer...
  
   clinic
• Macdonaldtown railway station
• The city morgue

External links

• Pat McGeown's description at his blog
• Article on Pat McGeown at The Pattaya Mail
• Listing attributing "Flash Mobs" to Pat's Uninteresting Tours via on-line Australian Dictionary
• Video from That's Fairly Interesting, New Zealand Television - July 1988 via YouTube
• Video from Willesee programme, 1985 via the Internet Archive