Central Maitland residents can be forgiven for thinking they were tucked up in bed with Fred Flintstone early last Thursday morning.
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The cartoon character's catchcry of Yabba Dabba Doo rang through the streets surrounding Maitland Public School at 3am, during an hilarious school bell bungle that has left the community in stitches.
You see the school's 'bell setter' accidentally set the 3pm 'Yabba Dabba Doo school's out' alarm for 3am, waking residents from their slumber at an ungodly hour.
An apology on the school's Facebook page said: "To the residents of Central Maitland who may or may not have been woken last night at 3:09am by the dulcet tones of Fred Flintstone screaming "YABBA DABBA DOO", we do apologise.
"Our bell setter is joining a Year 2 class this morning to rediscover the difference between "a.m." and "p.m." This will probably not happen again. Hopefully. Sorry!"
The post attracted a swathe of comments from followers who said they were left in hysterics. Maitland Public School principal Kevin Greaves said he was intrigued by the amount of traction the post got - close to 100 times the school's usual Facebook reach, he said.
However, he was not aware of any comments from disgruntled neighbours.
"We're very cognisant that the bell can have an impact on our local community," he said. "We understand we have shift workers around us."
Mr Greaves said the bell setter, who he declined to name, came to school Thursday morning and said: "I think I've made a horrible mistake."
"Some people said they heard it and wondered what was going on in the middle of town," Mr Greaves said.
At various times throughout the day the school bell will sound and coincide with a particular song. "Different classes choose the songs which can be anything from heavy metal to times tables, or our favourite which is the Richmond Football Club theme song," said Mr Greaves, a diehard Tigers supporter.
However Yabba Dabba Doo is permanently set to coincide with the school's time to go home bell. Bet the neighbours were happy it wasn't set to AC/DC's Jailbreak.
