Just steps from the sand, Escape This Manly is quietly running one of the more unusual and genuinely entertaining indoor experiences on the Northern Beaches and it’s called The Dunny!
Manly is famous for its coastline, but the suburb has always offered more than just a great beach day. And sometimes the most memorable part of a visit happens somewhere nobody expected; like being stuck inside an outback toilet. Tourists and locals alike should know about this quintessential Aussie experience!
From the Surf to the Outback: An Unexpected Delight
Escape This Manly runs three immersive escape room experiences: Magic School, where apprentice sorcerers must restore a crumbling spell before a Blood Eclipse swallows the realm (no pressure); Entombed, a Cairo-set mystery in which players step into the study of a missing archaeologist and promptly attract the attention of a very displeased ancient pharaoh; and The Dunny, a fully immersive Australian outback adventure built around the nation’s most iconic rural fixture.
Yes, the thunderbox. The outhouse. The great Australian dunny. It’s now an immersive experience, but thankfully without the accompanying aromatics!
The hilariously Aussie escape adventure is described as follows:
“Nature calls so you’ve slipped free of your tour group in search of a restroom.
Unfortunately, the only toilet you’ve seen on the tour of celebrity Huge Axeman’s house is the old dunny out the back. And ever since the man himself had gone crazy and taken to the bush several years ago, its door has remained permanently closed…
But now, with a little force, you’ve managed to pry it open enough to slip through and make use of the long drop inside.
Sitting silently in the fading light, you’re almost finished your business when you hear a rustling outside. You sit up abruptly to take a cautious look outside when suddenly the door slams shut!
Your greatest fears are realised as you try the door, and realise it’s locked. With only an hour of sunlight left, you’ll need to work quickly to escape and make it back to your friends. Otherwise, like the Axeman himself, you may disappear forever…”
Inside the Dunny: How Escape This Rebuilt an Aussie Icon From the Ground Up
When Escape This acquired the Manly venue, a dunny-themed room already existed, but it wasn’t hitting the mark. So the team did what any self-respecting escape room builder would do: they tore it down and started over.
Everything was redesigned at their Perth workshop, then shipped across the country to Manly, where a month of reinstalling and testing followed before reopening. That’s a serious amount of effort for a dunny. But the result is hard to argue with.
Step inside and the details land immediately, Milo tins, nods to native flora and fauna, iconic beverage coasters, and a set so packed with cheeky Australian references that half the fun is just standing there pointing things out. A narrator with a distinctly Australian accent keeps things moving with exactly the right amount of larrikin energy.
“It’s playful, tongue-in-cheek, and captures the humour Australians are known for,” says Bernie Janes, Co-Founder of Escape This. “We wanted to create an immersive experience that felt quintessentially Australian, not just in theme, but in tone.”
Why Escape This Builds Stories, Not Just Puzzle Rooms
There’s a version of escape rooms that’s basically a padlock convention with mood lighting. Escape This is deliberately not that.
“Traditional escape rooms focus mainly on puzzles,” Bernie explains. “What we create are immersive environments where players feel like they’ve stepped into a movie set.”
The Dunny sits at the more challenging end of the venue’s three rooms, but the humour and familiar Aussie references keep the pressure from spiralling. For most groups, the setting alone carries half the entertainment, an exaggerated outback scene where the jokes are baked into the walls and the puzzles sneak up on you.
A Genuinely Fun Manly Activity for Families, Groups, Tourists and Locals
All three escape experiences can be enjoyed from ages nine up, which makes them a natural fit for families, birthday groups, and anyone whose beach plans got rained out and needs a Plan B that turns out to be better than Plan A.
The real takeaway, Bernie says, isn’t the escape itself. “It’s shared memories with the people you came with. At the end of the day, these experiences are about stepping away from everyday life and doing something memorable together.”
For a suburb with no shortage of good ways to spend a day, it turns out one of the best might just begin inside a Manly outback dunny!
The Dunny @ Escape This
📍 2B The Corso, Manly NSW 2095
🕒 Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from 12 pm to 5:30 pm, Friday from 12 pm to 7 pm, and Saturday from 12 pm to 8:30 pm.
🌐 https://www.escapethis.com.au/sydney/manly-beach/escape-rooms/the-dunny
Story by Evie Scully
