Sir Edwin Smith - Cultural Heritage Festival: Keith Conlon examines some of the Adelaide City region's Cultural heritage
The Torrens Lake is certainly a signature Adelaide landmark. It's difficult to imagine the city without the peaceful pond in the dip of the river valley. The imposing effigy of Queen Victoria surveying all before her from her lofty perch in Victoria Square. They are not the only Adelaide images that owe their existence to one energetic man whose name appears lots - if you know where to look.
Meet the civic leader with a vision: Sir Edwin Thomas Smith - brewery king, Chief Magistrate, MP, community benefactor and one of the most energetic civic leaders in South Australia's history. He died on Christmas Day 1919 and his final resting-place is in the churchyard of the Clayton Wesley Uniting Church at the top of the Norwood Parade.
The church he helped build is a bookend of sorts in the story of a man who helped shape not just Adelaide but also his own patch of Norwood and Kensington. At the other end of the story is the Kent Town Brewery. This is where E.T. Smith created the beer empire that created his enormous wealth.
Denise Schumann, Historian: "He was a man of vision. He was a young entrepreneurial man who quickly establishes himself in a brewery … which became a major brewing empire which culminated with his building the Kent Town brewery in 1876."
Plenty of money in beer and the Kent Town soon became the greatest brewing empire in the Southern Hemisphere. No hops and barley deliveries anymore - just an upmarket housing development but next time you're in the Norwood Mall check out the inscription on the fountain - it used to sit outside the Kent Town Brewery. And on the day the brewery opened it wasn't Adelaide water running through the tap - it was Kent Town beer.
E.T. Smith used his massive wealth from his beer empire to better the district and there are lots of examples along the Parade alone - like the Institute Building, now a Library.
Denise Schumann, Historian: "ET Smith was behind the Institute movement and he built this in 1876. Designed by W. Abbott, one of South Australia's great architects and designed in a lovely Greek classical style of architecture."
Edwin Smith even donated the land next door to the Institute to build a Post Office. It looks a tad different now! The Norwood Town Hall is another lofty monument to Smith's generosity. On one of his many overseas trips he brought back a clock - trouble was it was too big and the tower had to be raised 3 and a half metres for it to fit!
The bell in the tower weighs nearly a ton so 1890 when it started to ring out one o'clock in the morning, two o'clock - not every citizen was impressed. In fact one of them turned up and fired the odd angry shot through the clock face!
A forward think man, he can also take the credit for introducing the first horse-drawn tram not just to Adelaide but to Australia. It began on the Kensington line and rapidly spread throughout the city and suburbs. Then, a century ago they went electric. If anybody deserved a plaque on the Parade it's got to be Edwin Smith.
Denise Schumann, Historian: "ET Smith was a great thinker and he realised that with the delivery of the electric tram system there would be no better entrance to the Norwood Oval than off the Parade. So he bought a series of cottages along the Parade (the former entrance was on Osmond Terrace). With the tram coming from Adelaide, people could alight here, go up the Parade or into the oval."
In 1878 he became the first patron of the Norwood Footy Club and the Red and Blues were his great love until the day he died. ET Smith is honoured inside the oval too with the pavilion of grandstand named after him.
Denise Schumann, Historian: "Where ever you go you can't get away from ET Smith. At the turn of the century Clarke's vineyard was the last open space in Norwood. ET Smith, mover and shaker that he is gets a group of men together, they purchase the lease to the vineyard and he sets about trying to establish a recreation ground. It takes a little bit of time but eventually he gets there in 1900 and we have the first football match played on Norwood Oval."
This five-time mayor, Chief Magistrate and MP truly deserves his place in the history books as one of our greatest movers and shakers. When the Kent Town Brewery first opened the newspaper of the day said this is a 'conspicuous and distinctive landmark' and it still is today. And of course, it's where they made the beer that made the money that made for a very generous contributor to his community - Sir Edwin Smith.
Sir Edwin is just one of the faces of the Cultural Heritage Festival around the district that's now on. For the events go to their website or call in to the Institute Library. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
'Nine by Nine - Shaping Our Destiny'
Cultural Heritage Festival.
9 - 18 September
Norwood Library
110 The Parade
Norwood
Ph 8366 4546Published 13th September 2009
