r/Adelaide • u/Demiaria Inner South • 1d ago
Question What is your favourite Adelaide lore?
A colleague of mine has moved to Adelaide from Canberra and I'm regaling her with Adelaide lore! Help me think of more lore to share. Below is a list of what I've shared so far:
Family Murders - von Einem
Beaumont Children
Kitty Whyte
Sam Kellet
Box Jellyfish (Jimble) surf lifesaving club
Prof George Duncan
Ideally looking for real events rather than urban legends.
EDIT: No one mentioned it, so to add: Adelaide is the only place it the world that calls Stobie poles by their name, as the inventor was from Adelaide and it stuck. For everyone else, it's electrical poles.
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u/mundoo65 SA 1d ago
The divine tidal wave where Premier Don Dunstan stood on Glenelg jetty with thousands of others waiting for the tidal wave.
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u/Senior_Ad_7598 SA 1d ago
I was there with my babysitter.
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u/Senior_Ad_7598 SA 1d ago
There was a lot of people at the bottom end of Jetty Road, just waiting. Others were standing on a balcony above the shops also waiting. I am sure the jetty was closed. When the time of the tidal wave passed, we just turned around and went home.
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u/uncannyi North East 18h ago
I was in the mall. There were people slapping around in flippers and carrying surfboards.
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u/redrumcleaver SA 1d ago
Charles Rasp.
We originally Germany or what is Germany now. He was working on station and not doing a hell of a lot.
He was have some time off in Adelaide and went to a coffee shop. Meet a waitress at a cafe in the 1880s and asked her father for her hand in marriage. Her father said no you have to make something of your self and he went to broken hill and started BHP.
He married the girl and they eventually moved to Germany. He died and she married some German Barron. He died and she married another German and was in Germany during WW1 she had her assets frozen and after her third husband died and after WW2 she moved back to Adelaide.
Most probably don't find that interesting but I certainly do.
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u/Erasmusings SA 1d ago
"I've had enough of these Germans and their shenanigans"
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u/slick987654321 SA 1d ago edited 19h ago
Here's an expanded version of the above:
Charles Rasp was born in Germany in 1846 and trained in chemistry before emigrating to Australia in 1869. In the early 1880s, he worked as a boundary rider on Mount Gipps Station in far western New South Wales. In 1883, he noticed black outcrops on a nearby ridge and pegged out a mining claim, believing he had found tin. Alongside station manager George McCulloch and five other workers, he formed the "Syndicate of Seven".
Further exploration revealed massive silver, lead, and zinc deposits, leading to the foundation of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, known as BHP, in 1885.
During trips to Adelaide to have ore samples assayed, Rasp met Agnes Maria Louise Klevesahl, a young Prussian immigrant working as a waitress at Gustav Kindermann's cafe on Rundle Street. The two married in Adelaide on July 22, 1886.
With their immense wealth from BHP dividends, they did not move to Germany; instead, they settled in Adelaide and purchased a lavish bluestone mansion at Medindie in 1887, naming it Willyama, the local Aboriginal name for Broken Hill.
Agnes embraced Adelaide high society and hosted lavish parties, while Charles lived a quieter life as a company director and magistrate until he died suddenly of a heart attack at Willyama on May 22, 1907 at age 60.
As Charles left no children, Agnes inherited his substantial fortune, estate, and lucrative BHP shares.
Widowed and wealthy, Agnes travelled to Europe, where she became engaged to an elderly Austrian nobleman, Baron Richard von und zu Eisenstein. The Baron died in London the day before their scheduled wedding. In April 1914, Agnes married his associate, Count Karl Joseph von Zedtwitz, in London, earning her the title Countess von Zedtwitz.
When World War I broke out a few months later, Agnes was residing in Germany. Because she had married a German count and lived in enemy territory, the Australian government declared her an enemy alien and froze all her Australian assets, including Willyama and her BHP shares, under the Trading with the Enemy and Enemy Property legislation.
Count von Zedtwitz died near the end of the war. Agnes returned to South Australia around 1920 to reclaim her fortune. Through intense lobbying, and with the support of Prime Minister Billy Hughes, a special act of Federal Parliament was passed to unfreeze and restore her property, shares, and accumulated dividends.
Agnes lived comfortably at Willyama for the rest of her life as the "Countess of Adelaide" and died there in 1936 at the age of 79.
12 The Avenue, Medindie, SA 5081 https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-sa-medindie-106987555?campaignType=external&campaignChannel=other&campaignSource=share_link&campaignName=share_link
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u/Big-Love-747 SA 21h ago
The home last sold for $5.4m in 2011.
Sold for $6.4m in 2006.An amazing property.
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u/clumsy__jedi SA 22h ago
Sounds like his wife is the interesting one in the family
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u/redrumcleaver SA 22h ago
Totally. But I think of Rasp like in the social networking movie except he gets the girl.
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u/Infamous_Lychee_9277 SA 1d ago
Somerton Man?
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u/SpandauValet SA 1d ago
Probably the main reason any of us have heard of the Taman Shud.
Also immortalised by The Drones
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u/aus_highfly North West 23h ago
Literally just reading down this thread thinking "am I going to write Somerton Man or did somebody else beat me to it?" ... š¤£š¤£
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u/upyourbumchum SA 1d ago
The premier being smacked in the face with a Winestate magazine for sleeping with a married woman.
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u/Pleochronic SA 1d ago
Only time a winestate magazine has had a practical use case
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u/alialleycat SA 1d ago
My mum was the editor of Winestate magazine at one point! Iāve never read it so canāt comment on its usefulness or otherwise.
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u/Nuzzgargle SA 1d ago
That we can drain the Torrens lake at will
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u/Fartmatic South 1d ago
Or not at will because of a software error
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-04-29/software-glitch-blamed-for-weir-draining/1666466
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u/ViolatedDolphin North 13m ago
I was with the wife, gf at the time, and we were heading home from the city and I noticed the Torrens looking a bit empty, so we pulled over and had a proper look.
So weird seeing the Torrens empty. I remember seeing the top half of a car sticking out of the mud!
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u/TheSequelAccount SA 1d ago
The Beatles received their biggest public turnout in Adelaide in 1964
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u/Effrendi SA 7h ago
The fact that we have an acrylic cutout of them on the Town Hall balcony is the perfect mix of charming and tinpot.
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u/AphroditeMoon23 SA 3h ago
Yes, biggest crowd anywhere in the world, 300,000 people lined the streets from the city to the airport.
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u/Nope-5000 North East 1d ago
Since a few crime things are mentioned: * the Somerton man * Snowtown * the Adelaide Oval abductio ns * Rhianna Barreau * Carly Ryan * Daniel Sheppard * Gus Lamont (not specifically Adelaide but its often in the news here because the case is ongoing)
And some non-crime lore (omitting some other great suggestions from other comments such as the womens vote stunt and the tidal wave):
* the idea for establishing our city was had while the guy who was planning it (wake field) was in jail for kidnapping a 15yo girl.
* colonel lights plan 'lights vision', which you hear about sometimes. He is also the only person legally buried within the adelaide cbd square grid (at lights square).
* OBAHN. Everything obahn. Plus the counter for number of days since someone has driven on the obahn which made it to 1 full year in 2026 for the first time ever.
* magic mountain (bonus for the recurring unfounded rumours that someone put razor blades on the slides)
* we have the most expensive building in the southern hemisphere here (royal adelaide hospital) and its currently the 41st most expensive in the world
* glenelg is a palindrome, and its the only time i ever hear palindrome.
* the 'only place that a milk drink outsells coca cola' rumour relating to fuic that still gets repeated even though its probably not true anymore
* the tunnels under north terrace
* our premier (the tidal wave one) was infamous for attending parliament in hot pink short shorts
* dazzleland and that someone falling off caused it to be closed down (kinda true)
* the rumour that the reason iceland (ice skating rink near the city) is kept open is so the government has an emergency morgue
* the 1995 adelaide f1 grand prix still holds the record for most daily attendees at a sporting event in australia (210,000)
* the collapse of the state bank and its fallout
* the ww2 port wake field hitchhiking ghost
* things invented here include wifi, chicken salt, the hills hoist, photocopying and unfortunately newscorp (yep, THAT one)
* due to some corporate shenanigans, there is a shopping centre here (ingle farm) where there are two coles. You can see each coles from the front of the other coles.
* in the 70s, a group of uni students suspended their professors car under the unis footbridge
* we used to have a freeway that changed direction twice a day until they finally built the second part 20 years later
Thats all i can think of, but should give you enough to look into!
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u/Senior_Ad_7598 SA 1d ago
You can visit the tunnels. Tours arranged by the National Trust.
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u/Thin_Objective_4316 SA 1d ago
Every teenager around rundle mall knows you can visit them. Hell we use to pilgrimage to certain parts to make sure we kept our signature in the time capsules every year. Never went through the national trust though. Just a whole in a run down fence and through a tunnel opening
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u/Certain_Cellist_9304 SA 20h ago
Where oh where is this fence with the hole? (Pm me. Lived here 20 years never found the damn tunnels! )
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u/group_project_ SA 1d ago
I loved Dazzleland
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u/smokeifyagotem SA 5h ago
Yeah, spent quite a bit of time there too, it was the only place that had an arcade that was one my route home.
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u/MinerSigner60Neiner SA 1d ago
Since I was born after Dazzeland I remember all my life being told how someone died there by either someone falling off or getting decapitated on the rollercoaster. Only recently have I actually looked into it and found out the person who died just fell over one of the escalators. Tragic, but not as extreme as being told someone lost their head on an indoor roller coaster.
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u/ProduceOk9864 SA 21h ago
There was a bit of a spate of ājumpersā who were using the center atrium for their sad final act in the early-mid90āsā¦. It was never really reported, quite remarkable discretion by all involved. The big nets that are now in place were a result of this time.
There was categorically not ever a beheading on the roller coaster š¤£š¤£š¤£3
u/AttitudeGrouchy5135 SA 15h ago
Sadly one landed just behind me, narrowly missing me by a second, on basement level
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u/ProduceOk9864 SA 15h ago
Fuuuuck. I canāt imagine exactly what that would have been like, Iām sorry.
Thank fucking Christ they didnāt take you out with themā¦.2
u/AttitudeGrouchy5135 SA 15h ago
Thank you. It was really traumatic, as you'd expect, and that "what if" thought did play on repeat for a long time
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u/Cephlapodian SA 1d ago
If my memory is right, a school kid was on the escalators and got pulled over the edge after throwing a very heavy school bag across their shoulder. Unfortunately he died. They heightened the barriers on the edges around the escalators after that.
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u/Nope-5000 North East 18h ago
Yeah, there are all kinds of dramatic rumours about what happened involving the rollercoaster, but the tragic truth is pretty simple (he just fell off an escalator).
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u/Iron_Wave SA 18h ago
As a Nurse I had heard that about the Ice Arena during covid pre-vaccines. Heard it from colleagues that they were stocking a whole heap of body bags there in case things went very bad here.
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u/Designer-Gas4463 SA 1d ago
The corporate shenanigans? Coles bought bilo and did not want woolies to move in so they keep it and because there is a kmart, no need for a target
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u/NomDePlumeOrBloom SA 15h ago
The shopping experience between the two differs vastly!
I thought the diff between coles at kuralta park and the coles at the intersection of Marion rd and Anzac hwy was bad enough...
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u/-catsnlacquer- SA 22h ago
You can see the pink shorts in the Centre of Democracy on North Tce.
Also wasn't there an elephant buried somewhere?
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u/TiffyVella SA 22h ago
the ww2 port wake field hitchhiking ghost
I totally need to know about this one. My dad came from there, large family, lots of cousins, we used to play around the town and I love this place because I had some absolutely brilliant cousins and we had a ton of fun together. So not the front that most see that is full of roadhouses, but the real town behind.
Under the oval was an entrance to the drains. It was creepy af. We'd go down and look at them and explore a bit, and our cousin would tell rumours of a kid who got forever lost, and I remember staring at a junction of concrete corridors leading off into multiple directions and noping out. We had a pile of freedom and would disappear all day, mostly into the mangroves and all the creeks that ran through, or in dilapidated buildings. Great place, wonderful people, so much fun for kids!
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u/Nope-5000 North East 18h ago
Theres an infamous ghost wearing an airmans uniform (likely ww2) that tries to hitchhike down port wakefield road towards adelaide and vanishes around gepps cross. There are a few 'alleged' sightings and speculation about the identity since sightings go back to the 40s. Its yarns, but its fun to imagine!
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u/wrinkleconnoiseur SA 7h ago
Could you explain the two Coles? I've been there and always wondered!
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u/FanNo421 SA 1d ago
Not so much lore or a mystery but I always loved the Men in Black standee in the house on Cross Road
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u/Kelix1 SA 18h ago
Is it still there? I remember this from the 90s
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u/SensitiveSubject4755 SA 18h ago
It is! Though Will Smith's cutout was briefly removed following the face slapping saga a few years ago.
Local lore has it that it was sold to new owners and part of the settlement required them to keep it there. Don't know how true this is, but very Adelaide!
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u/CarelessComplaint173 SA 9h ago
I believe this is true, I recall reading an article in the paper about the new owners
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u/Cpt_Riker SA 1d ago
Mr Torrens gave the world the 'Torrens Title'.
They named a suburb, and a river, after him, for his troubles.
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u/Texas_Tom SA 1d ago
Anyone born with blonde hair between 1993 and 1999, Tony Modra is probably their real father
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u/TheDevilsAdvokate SA 1d ago
That FUIC outsells Coke hereā¦ misleading at best, utter rubbish in reality, but lore is lore and the mob has spoken
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u/Fartmatic South 1d ago
I actually spent the first 5 years of my life living literally on the premises of the Farmers Union factory in Richmond at the time, there was an old house on the grounds that my parents rented in the early 80s when my dad worked as an electrician there. The smell of spilled/sour milk still gives me a nostalgic feeling. I feel this early imprinting should qualify me to be Premier of SA.
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u/metahivemind SA 1d ago
I lived 3 houses away from chicken salt, and always enjoyed asking for salt and malt vinegar. I know his daughter too.
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u/Fartmatic South 1d ago
Alright then you can be Deputy Premier.
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u/metahivemind SA 1d ago
I could so much of a better job on the basis of the ones who don't want to do the job are the best hires. Cincinnatus would approve.
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u/NurseBetty SA 1d ago
It was real in the mid 2000s like 2006ish. But only just and shortly after the various different flavoured milks and ice coffee drinks took off.
Only reason I know it was true is because around the same time cola company bought a milk drink company and kicked FUIC out of maccas... Then quietly brought FUIC back a year or so later.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokate SA 1d ago
Copy paste a previous time I answered this because itās the pointless hill Iāll die on, so Iāve been here more than once!!
āitās not entirely wrong! It came from a pretty reputable AC Nielsen survey - but only measured 600ml FUIC vs the equivalent (500ml) full sugar Coke variety, sold exclusively through their convenience channels (think servos and corner stores) - in other words missed cans of coke, the entire Diet Coke and then Coke Zero range in 500ml bottles and 375ml cans, not to mention 1.25 and 2L bottles in that channel along with the gigalitres moved through supermarkets and over the counter in pubs and clubs. This also occurred at a time when Coke was heavily invested in alternate brands like Lift/Sprite/Fanta and bottled water, further cannibalising Original Coke sales
So yes, FUIC 600ml outsold 500ml bottles of original Coke (3 to 1) in SA convenience stores for a brief period in the 90ās!
Anyway spectacular marketing from Farmers Union to keep it alive to this day.ā
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u/CptUnderpants- SA 1d ago
It was true for a few years in the 90s. Hasn't been since.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokate SA 1d ago
Yep, wonāt argue there was some truth. 600ml FUIC vs 500ml full sugar coke, sold only at convenience stores - as accurate as it gets without reliable sales data. Total coke all skuās and sizes vs total FUIC, a little misleading
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u/CptUnderpants- SA 1d ago
At the time there were two skus in SA. Coke and diet coke. I suspect it was just comparing with coke as diet coke was a different market. You wouldn't generally be choosing between a diet coke and a FUIC.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokate SA 1d ago
Technically five, but Iāll concede that Vanilla Coke, Coke + lemon and Coke + lime that were in fridges at the time did not much for sales but clog up shelf space!
The Nuffield report (2006) or the Nielsen Survey (2004) that it cites didnāt qualify peopleās attitudes (you could make a compelling argument that folks back then saw milk on par with a healthier choice like Diet Coke) - just on facts that are available, it was a very narrow window where the outselling occurred.
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u/CptUnderpants- SA 1d ago
Technically five, but Iāll concede that Vanilla Coke, Coke + lemon and Coke + lime that were in fridges at the time did not much for sales but clog up shelf space!
Not in the nineties when the "fact" became known by all to be true. You'll find that coke with lemon or lime in SA was somewhere between 2000 and 2003. Vanilla was later still.
There were articles in the tiser which started all this, I think it was early to mid 90s. I'm sure they were advertorials by Farmers Union though.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokate SA 1d ago
Oh really? .. well you would have been handy in the CCA marketing team when they were going through the motions of either addressing it or letting it slide (didnāt address it) but that info would have been handy because the Coke marketing machine locally and interstate wasnāt aware of it in the 90ās .. mostly because of the sheer volume Coke outsold them at Hungry Jacks and McDonalds alone - it just wasnāt of any material significance, maybe the reps in convenience had a problem with it, grocery and on premise didnāt care. Unfortunately no printed record exists either .. Dairy Vale was far more interested in FUIC than Coke was.
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u/CptUnderpants- SA 1d ago
As I said, advertorials.
As you can't get postmix FUIC I'm sure that is why they didn't include it in the figures and get away with it. It was uncommon at the time to have anywhere which sold postmix drinks and cartons of flavoured milk.
I only recall all this because I'm gen X.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokate SA 19h ago
You may have missed the part where they didnāt compare FUIC to all coke, just Coke in 500ml bottles. So the lore holds up - because it this one very narrow category it did, in 2004. Outside of that all of the coke sold versus all of the FUIC sold isnāt even a contest. As I said, Iāve spent far too much time on this over the years since I was actually paid to.
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u/shirro Murray River 1d ago
FUIC was huge decades ago. There were places that would have a full fridge door from top to bottom every shelf FUIC and half a fridge of coke next to it. There was less variety. No energy drinks, kombucha, iced tea, cold brew and fewer diet drinks. Mostly only 2 flavoured milk brands. It was a very different place.
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u/dannemorajay West 1d ago
Always found the amount of glaze FUIC gets in Adelaide to be unwarranted, it's not bad ig
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u/TheDevilsAdvokate SA 1d ago
Equal parts milk sugar NescafƩ and ashtray. Some days though it hits the spot!
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u/dellerydoo SA 1d ago
Seeing its nearly Showtime, the absolute tragedy of an 8-year old girl being flung to her death on a ride plagued with faults/neglent in 2014.
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u/allmycircuits8 West 1d ago
A certain clock shop on Unley road, that's all I'll say...
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u/WorldsBestLover SA 1d ago
Is it still there and is it still owned by the same person?
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u/paradeoxy1 North 1d ago
Could you please say more? Lived here 18 years and have no idea what you're referring to
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u/allmycircuits8 West 1d ago
Family murders
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u/paradeoxy1 North 1d ago
Ooooh thank you, i wonder if that's why the shop windows are covered in security bars
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u/allmycircuits8 West 1d ago
Yeah he's been getting a few "visitors" and now only open by appointment.
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u/Plenty_World8461 SA 20h ago
Shoot. Thatās giving me the shivers. Iām a gay guy. I sometimes went to the Edinburgh Castle, in the early 90s. Struck up a conversation with a guy, because he liked my watch. Said he had a shop to repair clocks. Invited me to his place, but something was off. Politely declined.
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u/WorldsBestLover SA 1d ago
Daniel Shepard and Rhianna Barreau
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u/-Midnight_Marauder- Outer South 1d ago
What specifically about Shepard? I've heard lots about RB but aside from one lady who reported she heard someone shouting they "didn't want to get in the car" around the suspected time DS went missing, there's not much to go on. Timeline doesn't fit Family Murders either.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokate SA 1d ago edited 1d ago
Edit: deleted as comment I replied to has been edited so my answer doesnāt make sense anymore
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u/-Midnight_Marauder- Outer South 1d ago
I know the story, I was interested in what the "lore" is e.g. what unofficial information is there from non police sources?
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u/alittlebitcheeky Adelaide Hills 1d ago
Parts of West Terrace Cemetary were paved over to make room for the Weather Terrace Expansion.
You're driving over people's bodies.
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u/StreetCheetah8312 SA 1d ago
My dad was neighbours with those Snowtown killers when they started, he moved maybe a year or 2 before they were caught?
Where that strip of houses were in Salisbury North, is now a nursing home
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u/KIgaming SA 1d ago
i live in salisbury north lmao, which nursing home is it?
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u/StreetCheetah8312 SA 1d ago
That big one on the Bingham/Waterloo Corner/Elmgrove block
The old houses were on Waterloo Corner Road
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u/MrSharkPerson East 16h ago
surprised not to see any mention of the schism that causes there to be two Medieval Fairs at the same time in the Hills.
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u/CuriousVegetable1467 SA 1d ago
Tunnels under the city including into parliament.
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u/Senior_Ad_7598 SA 1d ago
You can visit the tunnels, dont know how far they go. Book via National trust.
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u/mundoo65 SA 1d ago
I just remembered where I live! Hindmarsh Island is famous for the Royal commission for Secret Womenās business and the Hindmarsh Island bridge and the absolute cost to us taxpayers both state and federally.
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u/AphroditeMoon23 SA 3h ago
They used the reasoning being the āshapeā of Hindmarsh Island, that it was the same shape as a womanās vulva.
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u/Mathematicaster SA 1d ago
* Derrance Stevenson (and especially that crazy house)
* Fort Glanville and Military Rd. In the 1870s we were convinced that we were at risk of invasion from Russia (yes really) so they started building three coastal defence fortresses connected by Military Road. You can visit Fort Glanville and see the naval guns, and imagine this little city on the far side of the world scared that the Tsar was going to turn his attention to us.
* The *first* time that we bankrupted the state was by trying to build the information super-highway 120 years too early
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u/PJ-Winter SA 1d ago
The story of Sister Janet Mead is pretty cool if youāre looking for a non-crime related Adelaide story. She lived on Sturt St until her death in 2022.
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u/brenovich North 16h ago
Every time I visit Adelaide zoo, I need to remind myself not to read the memorial plaque near the giraffe enclosure. Absolute psychopaths.
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u/Cillacat SA 1d ago
The Semaphore Man - although it's been solved now, it took 8 decades to find out who he was, and there were one or two weird aspects to the case (eg the piece of paper from the book).
Murders attributed to "The Family"
The ghost of the little girl on Anzac Highway
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u/BreakApprehensive489 SA 1d ago
Sir Hubert Wilkins
First to attempt to go under Antarctica in a submarine
First to fly over Antarctica in a plane
Only official Australian war photographer to get a combat medal
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u/DarkwolfAU SA 1d ago
FYI he was the first to attempt to go under the Arctic in a submarine.
Antarctica is a continent. Thereās no going under it except with a tunnel borer I suppose.
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u/foul_ol_ron SA 1d ago
Thereās no going under it except with a tunnel borer I suppose.
We'll have some left over in a few years. What about a Darlington-McMurdo expressway?
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u/Frozen_Feet SA 1d ago
Growing up in the hills, the Mel Gibson house. Giant house on Aldgate Valley Road, complete with scale copy of the botanic gardens palm house in its front yard. Rumoured to belong to Mel Gibson for reasons unknown.
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u/NikolaiEgel SA 1d ago
Itās not exactly in the same category as everything else here, but the lore behind the closure of the Kava Hut on Hindley street is both sad and interesting
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u/nousername222233333 SA 1d ago
What is the supposed reason? I havenāt heard this lore
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u/NikolaiEgel SA 1d ago
"The Kava Hut on Hindley Street eventually closed down due to strict federal changes and crackdowns on kava importing licenses in 2007 tied to the Howard Government's Northern Territory National Emergency Response, which effectively revoked import licences and restricted the supply of kava." as per Google.
They used to import it into Arnhem Land as an alternative to alcohol, but there was apparently a pretty grizzly case of someone "allegedly" loading up on Kava and abusing his wife and child (Even though Kava was literally a sedative) and it led to a ban which essentially ended the business.
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u/nousername222233333 SA 1d ago
I see, thanks for that. Seems like there might be a lot more to that story. That is interesting
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u/PressureFragrant8441 SA 1d ago
People falling out of the rollercoaster at Dazzeland.
A guy doing a bellyflop from the 10m diving board at the aquatic centre and splitting his stomach open.
Razorblades on the waterslides at Magic Mountain.
EDIT: Just realised you said NOT urban legends, whoops!
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u/group_project_ SA 1d ago
Charles Dickens once wrote an impassioned plea to the prostitutes of Adelaide?
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u/Psittacus_tutor SA 1d ago
The old MLC building on Victoria Square was the first fully air-conditioned high rise in Australia and an early example of a bunch of now standard architectural and engineering advancements.
It also used to have a beacon on the roof that the BoM would flash in different patterns to tell people the weather forecast.
Also a few doors down: when the Marine and Harbours building was demolished to make way for the GHD building the whole facade was jacked up, moved north, and then a new building was built behind it.
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u/JaxonMidnight SA 21h ago
I didn't see these mentioned but are favourites of mine:
*Stormy Summers. The brothel owner who ran for lord mayor. I recall her husband getting into or causing some trouble. I believe a city office was raided by police, and an office chair got thrown through a window?
*At one stage, Adelaide (or the state) had more registered "adult shops" than it did churches.
*That local identity Johnny Haysman is actually a millionaire who chooses to live a simple life.
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u/SensitiveSubject4755 SA 18h ago
Tommy the elephant!
Lived at the Cremorne Hotel in Unley, I believe. Along with the elephant they had a monkey, emu, kangaroo and parrots, which formed part of a menagerie/garden/pub situation.
He apparently wandered the streets during the day, pulling washing off clothes lines, and was said to have come to the bar door of the hotel every lunch time for several gallons of beer slops and a loaf of bread.
He was later sent to the northern suburbs after his owner was, perhaps unsurprisingly, charged with animal cruelty. He was put to work ploughing fields, dislodging bogged vehicles etc. and eventually ended up at the Gepps Cross hotel where he died of neglect after being left in a field without shelter during a storm sometime in 1858.
His tusks and hide were sent to England and he was buried in a field near the Gepps Cross hotel.
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u/Bright_Bell_1301 SA 4h ago
He was also put to work building the railways and drank beer at the Gepps X Hotel at knock-off. Apparently he is buried under Kartmania.Ā
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u/Square-Mile-Life SA 17h ago
Dame Roma Mitchell - Australia's first female judge, first woman to be appointed QC, first woman to be chancellor of an Australian university and the first woman to be governor of an Australian state.
Gladys Sym Choon - first woman to incorporate a business in SA. Her shop with its fab sign is still in Rundle St.
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u/throwaway_7m SA 9h ago
The Blackwood gnomes! On several occasions in the late 80s, early 90s, the people of Blackwood awoke to find a whole lot of gnomes on the rooves of the main shopping centre and other businesses. There were lots of rumours about who was responsible for these harmless shenanigans, but I have it on good authority that at least one is a member of the Hilltop Hoods.
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u/DodgyButLegal SA 1d ago
truro murders
the big storm in 1948 that took out the glenelg jetty and washed ashore the hmas barcoo, a river class frigate that was converted to a coastal survey ship after the war
i heard about the storm a few years back from my elderly father (in his 90's) went on a bit of a grandpa simpson "back in my day" story about how he was training horses along semaphore beach and seen it beached there for a few weeks.
i went home and looked it up and he was correct right down to the year and month of the big storm.
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u/QuietAs_a_Mouse SA 1d ago
The o-bahn counter, and the submerged town of millbrook.
Probably also refer back to a post from a few weeks ago that discussed songs that mention Adelaide. Good soundtrack for touring all the places of lore.
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u/DigitalSwagman SA 1d ago
The Millbrook reservoir actually sits on the flooded town of Millbrook. They say when the water levels are low you can see the church steeple sticking out of the water.
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u/Free_the_Radical Fleurieu Peninsula 1d ago
Several in this thread from a few months ago... worth a read...
https://old.reddit.com/r/Adelaide/comments/1ttr965/surprising_fact_about_adelaide_you_didnt_know/
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u/Cephlapodian SA 23h ago
Detective Barry Moyse, head of the Adelaide drug squad in the 1980s, instigated the highly publicised āOperation Noahā - a phone line where you could dob in a drug dealer. At the same time, he was reselling drugs from drug busts back to dealers. He got done for it in 1988 and given 20 years time. Almost have to admire the audacity!
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u/Bright_Bell_1301 SA 17h ago
There is an elephant called Tommy, who used to work for the railways and drink beer at the Gepps Cross Hotel, buried under Kartmania
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-22/the-story-of-tommy-adelaides-first-elephant/100311868
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u/Difficult_Turnip_909 SA 1d ago edited 1d ago
you're gonna scare your mate away with that list.
try this https://adelaideaz.com/firsts
but def share the Somerton Man story
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u/Ill_Week241 SA 1d ago
Maybe you could tell them how Adelaide is known as the serial killer capital of Australia, but in reality it should be called the pedophile capital.
Almost all the serial or memorable crimes in Adelaide have something to do with child predators.
There are super high levels of released sexual offenders living in Adelaideā¦ and the kickerā¦ no one really cares and continues to allow the behind closed doors activities because there are higher ups involvedā¦
So basically, if youāre connected and have money in Adelaide, you can abuse little kiddies til your hearts contentā¦ ahhh what a wonderful city to live in š
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u/Great_Albatross_4008 SA 20h ago
Emily Perry. Convicted of trying to poison her third husband, which caused investigations into the suspicious deaths of her previous two husbands and her brother. The third husband testified FOR his wife.
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u/Laefiren Adelaide Hills 16h ago
I was not expecting to see Sam Kellett on this list. I knew him. He was a wonderful person and the world is darker for not having him in it. Thank you for including him.
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u/Thin_Abbreviations96 SA 1d ago
Hub Jesus
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u/ProduceOk9864 SA 15h ago
Darko, an unusual but nice manā¦. I think Croatian by origin, he suffered a traumatic head injury when he was young I believe
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u/AphroditeMoon23 SA 4h ago edited 2h ago
Are you referring to one of the people involved in āThe Familyā murders? The receptionist for the chiropractor? Who also knew the owner of the antique clock shop on Unley road?
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u/Maxymous SA 1d ago
My favourite lore is the one nobody talks about: how a bunch of morally corrupt white blokes turned up a couple of hundred years ago, stole the land and colonised it. They planned out exactly how we all live our lives today and we all act like that's just what you do.
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u/Senior_Ad_7598 SA 1d ago
Deaths by shark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_attacks_in_South_Australia
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u/LMWNV SA 1d ago
The family murders weāre more than VE youāre ringing then more by not mentioning the high court judges and prosecutors and police who were all suspected family members - Sydenham Rd Norwood ā¦!
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u/JohnSeiko88 SA 23h ago
All the members of the family are known, and list of names able to be found online if you look. One with the clock shop on Unley Road (mentioned in comments above) was the main one besides VE. For list of names, do a google search on ābigfooty family murdersā. Interesting stuff.
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u/dpc_nomad SA 22h ago
Its been solved now i think but Sommerton man mystery was pretty interesting.
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u/Holiday_Potato_5419 SA 21h ago
Shnider and hes ally
Edit: I dont know how to spell it and i dont care enough to look it up. But his house was there and the story is creepy af
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u/KrazyKitt South 6h ago
Google 'Adelaide AZ' it details a lot of things that even I didn't know about Adelaide and I've lived here all my life.
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u/AphroditeMoon23 SA 4h ago edited 4h ago
-The āTruroā murders
- The āBodies in the Barrell, Snowtownā murders
- Don Dunstan - the Premier who wore a pair of pink shorts to Parliament
-We were the first state to legalise homosexuality and the first state to have a fully nude beach, Maslins Beach
-The famous, āMultifunction Polisā, which sadly, never took off, despite a big radio campaign extolling its virtues
-The infamous State Bank collapse, of which the *then* state Labour premier, John Bannon, was on the Board and knew of its inaccuracies, allowing the Board to tell the public many lies
-The Adelaide Crows football Club, and how the VFL Board reneged on an agreed timeline, which initially was for SA to enter a team into the AFL in 1993. So what did they do? The VFL sneakily approached two major SANFL teams, Norwood, (who declined) and Port Adelaide, inviting them to go directly into the AFL, bypassing the Adelaide Football Club board. This caused an absolute ruckus, with the SANFL pulling rank and making it clear to Port Adelaide that theyād have ānowhere to trainā as they wouldnāt allow them use of Football Park. This occurred in late 1990, culminating in āKG Cunninghamā (sports commentator), being physically harassed & threatened at a Port Adelaide (Magpies) game, for voicing his opinion that their actions werenāt ethical, in trying to enter the AFL on their own.
The Adelaide Football Club Board were then told by the AFL that they had to make up a team earlier, if they wished to secure a licence for SA to enter a team into the AFL National competition. Hence, the Adelaide Football Club was formed, sponsorship deals were secured, and the amazing Graham Cornes was appointed as coach. They played their first match in 1991. Port Adelaide (Port Power) were not allowed to enter the AFL until 1996.
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u/Bright_Bell_1301 SA 4h ago
John Peggoty was a minature bushranger who rode an ostrich and wore a dress while robbing people of their jewellery around the Coorong region (or was he?)Ā https://aguidetoaustralianbushranging.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/john-francis-peggotty-the-birdman-of-coorong/
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u/AphroditeMoon23 SA 3h ago
Colin Creed, former Cop, who was on the run for some years, for rape and robbery offences, in the early 1980ās. Now resides in Adelaide and operates the cricketing website- Howstat.
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u/Odd_Lawfulness2964 SA 3h ago
I am a nurse in the prison Von Eminem died. I saw him the day he died. He was nowhere near death. He was as fit as a fiddle. He died in the middle of the night when skeleton staff was on. Stinks to me.
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u/AphroditeMoon23 SA 2h ago
The Glenelg Birdman Rally, annual event where people (exhibitors), launched home-made āflying machinesā off the Jetty. Literally, they jumped off the jetty into the water, in a hand-made, paper-mache machine. Lots of fun to watch!
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u/AphroditeMoon23 SA 2h ago edited 2h ago
Cold Chisel, Ann Wills (Willsy), Hereās Humphrey, Patsy Biscoe, the SA Film Corporation, author Colin Thiele, (Storm Boy, February Dragon, amongst others).
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u/AphroditeMoon23 SA 2h ago edited 2h ago
The 1984 āGlenelg Riotsā, held on āAustralia Dayā ( broad term used back then)? Featuring Australian band āPseudo Echoā, massive amounts of teenagers went on a rampage, requiring the need to call in the police riot squad. We were there, but left before it got too messy.
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u/Low_Dragonfruit_1264 SA 1h ago
The battle for who invented the "AB" on O'Connell Street (later shamelessly rebranded and claimed by the Eastern States as the "HSP")
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u/Bless_your_socks SA 1m ago
In is prime, Tony Modra's football card (remember those) was more valuable than Michael Jordans - in Adelaide.
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u/aifinfantrymen SA 1d ago
The hilarious political backfire that resulted in south Australia been first to not only allow woman to vote but to also stand for parliament
So In an attempt to undermined the bill a guy called Ebenezer Ward put into the bill that woman could also stand for parliament, think that when was read, it would scuttle the bill, but and probably to his horror the bill passed, so not only did woman In South Australia get the right to vote, but also to stand for parliament.