IN 1973, SAS Channel 10 Adelaide created the Children’s Medical Research Foundation of South Australia and began the annual broadcasts of the Channel 10 Christmas Appeal. Every year, until 1989, on a designated weekend in December, the stars from around the national Ten network, as well as other major showbiz celebrities and personalities, would gather […]
Archive | 2017
On The (Pokies) Buses and Trains
WHEN they first arrived in South Australia on July 25, 1994, poker machines immediately killed off a thriving little tourism industry known as “the pokies tours”. Those who were keen to revel in the heady thrill of legally pursuing a form of gambling that was illegal at home could take an organised poker machine tour […]
The Humble Hardware Store
It was where your father and grandfather went when they needed hinges to fix a banging door, or to get a piece of cut glass to replace a broken window. You could buy half a dozen nails in a brown paper bag or a single bolt with a nut and washer and nothing was packed […]
Adelaide GPO and Telephone Exchange
IT has lain silent and deserted for years, and musty hallways and darkened rooms have gathered dust and cobwebs that covered the decaying infrastructure within. Still and soundless for so long, Adelaide’s original Central Telephone Exchange is about to bounce back to life and become part of a flashy new food and retail hub. Last week, […]
What school was like in South Australia in the 1950s and 60s
I WAS invited recently to my grandson’s school to talk to the class about what school was like when I was growing up in the 1950s. I worried about it momentarily, after all, I don’t think I have ever done a presentation for a room full of eight year olds, and I didn’t really know what […]
King Neptune of the Golden Mile
ADELAIDE’S “Golden Mile” was a stretch of South Rd at Darlington where you could buy petrol at the weekend. That may not seem all that remarkable in these days of 24/7 trading but many Boomers who spent (or misspent) their teenage years in the 1960s and ’70s will recall that city and suburban service stations […]
The Best of Bob Byrne’s Boomer Columns
REMEMBER your first John Martin’s Christmas Pageant? Taking a ride in Samorn’s elephant cart? Leaving Rowley Park Speedway with lumps of clay in your hair? Or an afternoon tea with mum or grandma at Balfours Tearooms? Remember Amscol, Menz Yo-Yo Biscuits, Woodies lemonade, Burger King and the Lightburn Zeta car? What about Rundle Street before it […]