Who can forget the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s first visit back in 1954 when we welcomed the beautiful young queen and her handsome prince to Adelaide for the first time? Reports from The Advertiser on that day, March 18, 1954, estimated a crowd of some 200,000 people turned out for the start of her […]
Author Archive | Bob Byrne
Glenelg. The Beach From Our Youth
On a stinking hot summer’s day in Adelaide, before we were all air conditioned, there was one escape from the heat, the beach. We are blessed with many fine beaches along the coastline, but most people would head for ‘the bay’. A nice easy drive along Anzac Highway, and as you neared the end of […]
Moores on the Square
Moore’s on the Square was a magnificent department store known to two generations of Adelaideans and founded by Charles Moore, a businessman who was born in Ireland in 1858. According to Wikipedia “Moore’s opened in 1914, a new palatial store on the west side of Victoria Square between Grote and Grenfell Streets, designed by architects Garlick & Jackman. […]
Adelaide’s Own Woodstock, The Myponga Pop Festival
It was held on a dairy farm on a hot summer’s long weekend in January 1971. In the quiet, sleepy town of Myponga south of Adelaide, thousands of music fans turned out for a three day long rock music festival that they say changed the Australian music scene forever. Inspired by the 1969 Woodstock concert […]
Adelaide’s Great Race, The Grand Prix
There was a magical feeling in the air in Adelaide in late 1985 as the first Adelaide Grand Prix roared to life. That early November day was the culmination of years of planning and hard work going back to the early 1980s when businessman Bill O’Gorman originally came up with the idea of hosting a […]
Up On the Roof at Cox Foys
In the mid 50s Cox Foys opened a new department store in Rundle Street with a rooftop funfair for the kids. There was a giant Ferris wheel, train rides, a merry-go-round and other rides that mum would take us to as a treat after shopping in the city. Unfortunately very few photos remain of the […]
The Redhen, An Adelaide Train
Redhen Railcars bring back many great memories of train travel around Adelaide from the 1950s when they first started to appear until they were finally dropped from our city’s transport system in the early 1990s. They weren’t the most comfortable trains, without any airconditioning and with vynil seats that stuck to your skin on a […]
When TV Arrived in Adelaide
REMEMBER the tremendous excitement when television first arrived in Adelaide? It came in 1959, three years after it commenced in Melbourne and Sydney in time for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. The wait and build-up seemed to go on forever before TV finally arrived. Electrical retailers like H G Palmers, Ernsmiths and Saverys, attracted large […]
Rundle Street Before It Became a Mall
Remember before the mall, when Rundle Street was open to vehicular traffic from King William Street all the way through to East Terrace? In 1976, then Premier Don Dunstan officially opened Rundle Mall as a pedestrian only thoroughfare from King William to Pulteney Street and Adelaide and (although there is some debate surrounding this), became home […]
When the Baker Delivered Bread in a Horse and Cart
I remember before supermarkets and sliced bread in plastic bags, hot, fresh bread was delivered, unsliced of course, by the baker in his horse and cart. It may be a trick of nature, but it doesn’t seem all that long ago that the baker’s horse, a large, gentle creature that needed no guidance and was […]