Happy birthday to a true (but very hard) South Australian icon
Ah 2024, the Year of the Dragon. People have been waiting for 12 years for this. But wait, what’s that in InSider’s inbox? A press release hailing 2024 as… the centenary Year of the Stobie Pole? Back in your box, dragons!
InSider knows our worldly readers were all over this, so it’s embarrassing to admit that we only learned today that South Australia’s unique Stobie pole celebrates its 100th birthday this year.
Fun fact that InSider knew due to our vast knowledge of all things South Aussie (we are definitely not repeating it from an SA Power Networks press release): Steel and concrete Stobie poles were invented due to the previous wooden poles having “issues with termites”.
Step up Mr James ‘Cyril’ Stobie, who designed and patented his brainchild after joining the Adelaide Electric Supply Company (later ETSA). With a name like that, he was born to invent the Stobie pole!
The first was installed on South Terrace 100 years ago, to be followed by more than 650,000 holding up wires to carry electricity over 180,000 square kilometres around the state.
SA Power Networks is planning all sorts of “events and engagements” to celebrate the Stobie pole’s centenary, including a birthday party at its very own plant at Angle Park. Perhaps that is where the King will send his letter of congratulations!
Council plays Where’s The Colonel?
Colonel William Light, SA’s first Surveyor-General who famously laid out the city of Adelaide plan and park lands, is buried in Light Square.
Or is he? Even Adelaide City Council isn’t sure.
At Tuesday night’s City Planning, Development and Business Affairs committee, Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith raised the idea of moving the Colonel, while calling the pond around the obelisk and theodolite commemmorating him “an item of great hideousness”.
“I wouldn’t be unhappy to disinter Colonel Light, I don’t see why it’s that important to have him there,” she said.
“We’ve moved his statue a couple of times, you have to get permission to do something like that but it’s not impossible.”
The council is in the early stages of drafting a master plan for Light Square/Wauwi, with the discussion also agreeing that navigating the square is “a death wish” for cyclists.
Cue the smoke machine, InSider is sensing a theme here.
Those long nights at Town Hall must be getting to us, because the ghosts of cyclists led by Colonel Light reenacting the ‘Thriller’ music video began to play in our minds. But who can blame us? As we know, Adelaide is home to horror.
Councillor Phillip Martin disagreed “profoundly” with the suggestion that they exhume Colonel Light.
“Let Colonel Light rest in peace,” he said.
InSider can only assume this part of the transcript will protect Martin in the event that the Colonel is disturbed and we have a Ghostbusters situation on our hands.
As the conversation moved on to installing water and sewage facilities in the square to enable future events, Martin said something that made InSider’s conspiracy theorist ears prick up even further.
“I think we need to ascertain in regard to the comments about Colonel Light that he is indeed under the obelisk,” Martin said.
“Because there’s been a great deal of speculation over the years that he is not and he is actually in some other part of the park.
“I would hate to think that we accidentally exhumed him as we were installing a sewage pipe.”
Deputy Lord Mayor Keiran Snape agreed that was a “worrying” possibility.
“I hope this doesn’t turn into a game of Where’s The Colonel,” he said.
Gone to the dogs
SA wine business Zonte’s Footstep announced the launch of its new wine Dutch Courage, being the world’s first carrot wine for dogs – on April 1st.
The social media posts, which included some product photos as well as video post of the office dog Bo tasting the new product, reached 27,000 people with 6,500 watching the video through.
It was when the winery received export inquiries from South Korea and the USA that they had to come clean on the April Fool’s Day joke.
Owners Anna and Brad did discover that an American company has a no-alcohol beer for dogs that is a best seller… which might see the carrot wine make the shelves after all.
Of course, being “vegan” will also help the marketing.
InSider’s word of the week
You’d think during Gather Round, InSider would pick “gather” as the word of the week.
But the South Australian Museum seems to have another favourite word – “reimagine.”
During a parliamentary committee on Wednesday into the proposed changes and restructuring of the SA Museum, CEO Dr David Gaimster and Chair Kim Cheater repeated the word at least half a dozen times.
Cheater seems to be a stickler for giving precise definitions, asking the committee to clarify the meaning of “consultation.” However, neither he nor Dr Gaimster gave a precise definition of what they mean by “reimagine.”
As reported in InDaily, the proposed changes at the SA Museum, which will lead to the axing of some 27 academic research positions, have led to a strong backlash from the scientific community.
