50 years of Brewery Lights: Keith visits this icon of the Adelaide City region of South Australia
The gardens that make up the Riverbank Display alongside the Torrens near SA Brewing at Thebarton is a far cry from what Colonel William Light would have seen. 170 years ago, just before he died he was living in Thebarton on what is now brewery land. Fifty years ago the transformation of the Torrens bank began.
Year round we enjoy 10,000 square metres of carefully manicured lush lawn, clipped trees and ribbons of vivid red canna flowers. But fifty years ago this part of the riverbank was a virtual tip. Overrun by weeds and bushes it was definitely not the Brewery’s best angle. But come 1958 and some forward thinking beer bosses took the 'bull by the horns' or in this case, the 'riverbank by the bend' and the beautification was underway. The lawns and trees went in, a spectacular cascading waterfall followed along with Vulcan's volcano - they all became a permanent display.
Display boss, Peter Ashton remembers being scared as a kid by Vulcan – the smoke, the thunder and sparks. Vulcan's been scaring the kids ever since - but in 1959 Father Christmas and his reindeer joined him and the big fella's been visiting every festive season since.
Peter Ashton coordinates the display - that means making sure everything it is tiptop condition for the annual show. It's a big job resurrecting the exhibits from storage out the back of the brewery and carefully lifting them into place.
Originally, the plan was to use the riverbank display to celebrate events throughout the year - which included the 1960 Festival of Arts. There were Easter displays during the 60s and in 1965 it commemorated the 50th anniversary of ANZAC Day.
Snow White and the seven dwarfs are all accounted for today but in 2005 some of them were washed away when the River Torrens became very grumpy and came down in a huge torrent. The deluge swept a lot of the display downstream. Baby Jesus went for a dip, so did the Roo and anything that wasn't tied down. Moby Dick made a bid for freedom - he had to be retrieved 4 kilometres down river!
He's securely tethered now but 40 years ago he had some unexpected company. A shark - yep, a shark was fished out of the Torrens. Some wags working in the brewery caught the 4-metre monster offshore and smuggled it into the river for a joke. Floods, sharks, volcanic eruptions - they're all part of the colourful history of this iconic Adelaide display.
Come the Christmas season, about 300,000 people will lean on the fence and look across the River Torrens to the SA Brewery Christmas Lights. It's always a Merry Christmas - this year, it's a happy 50th anniversary as well.
You can see it all for yourself from Sunday Nov 29. It's on the River Torrens alongside the South Australian Brewing Company in Thebarton. Viewing is from Adam Street opposite the Entertainment Centre.
SA Brewery Christmas Light Display
Adam Street
ThebartonPublished 22nd November 2009
