The case of the disappearing Stobie pole | ADL Shopping Week | Should we legalise polygamy?
This week InSider speculates on the death of an SA icon, and one not-so-iconic, tired festival. All the while dancing to a playlist of urban planning bangers.
Is this the end for the beloved Stobie pole?
Earlier this year we farewelled Adelaide’s iconic Christmas tree that’s been looking a bit worse for wear in recent years. This week, as we trawled through material on the government’s newly released Urban Greening Strategy, another funeral march began to play.
In a slideshow of before and after pictures, one mainstay of South Australian streets was erased: the Stobie pole.
A stalwart of the South Australian streetscape so swiftly erased.
The pole, invented in 1924 by James Cyril Stobie was an answer to a timber shortage and an influx of white ants in SA.
Traditional timber power poles from interstate were being destroyed by the try-hard termites so Stobie, an engineer with Adelaide Electrical Co – a past life of SA Power Networks – designed the pole made of steel beams and filled with concrete.
South Australians have become fond of the tall, tough poles, and more than 650,000 of them are in use today. We’ve adorned them with posters, painted them and glorified them with birthday celebrations as they celebrated 100 years.
For our national readers who probably don’t know what a Stobie pole is, that’s because we’re the only place in the world that has them. However, looking at states doing better than us on the tree canopy front, perhaps there’s good reason.
Take Greater Sydney for example. Now they’ve got other problems (InSider isn’t brave enough to drive in the congested town) but the steely fork in the road isn’t one of them. Sydney currently has 21 per cent tree canopy cover based on the most recent findings (edging ahead of Adelaide’s 17 per cent) and has set a bold target of achieving 40 per cent by 2036.
For Adelaide to achieve its 30 per cent goal by 2055, it’ll have to overcome the challenge of how planting can interfere with powerlines.
Life after Stobie poles
After noticing the erasure of the Stobie pole in the renders of a greener Adelaide streetscape, we asked a government spokesperson specifically how Stobie poles could change under the greening plans.
We were told:
“The strategy highlights the need for innovative solutions to maximise urban greening where space is highly contested. This includes the potential undergrounding of powerlines and aerial bundled cabling which would allow for planting of trees which grow taller and provide more canopy,” the spokesperson said.
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“Legislative barriers currently limit the types of trees, and/or require regular pruning of trees, which are planted in the vicinity of overhead powerlines, to reduce risks of fire or interruptions to supply. It is also important to investigate and find diverse new tree species which fit the current size requirements to grow under powerlines.”
Conveniently, that response didn’t actually tell us much about whether the Stobie pole is due to retire anytime soon.
But reading between the lines, we wonder what these “innovative solutions” could be…
If the Stobie poles are to be deactivated as power vessels, would South Australian nostalgia memorialise them as a trellis for canopy?
Or would it be more dystopian, and perhaps in another 100 years time someone will stumble upon 650,000 Stobies in a warehouse somewhere, awaiting their death?
At least they got their centenary letter from the King first.
But with a 2055 deadline for a greener Adelaide, the chunky icons probably aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Speaking of things that should die… Is it just me? Or…
…would anyone care if Adelaide Fashion Week actually bit the dust for good?
As reported by InDaily, Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) Chair Steve Maras has warned the council the October Fashion Week event will be discontinued if AEDA funding isn’t increased this financial year.
But how many of us would care?
Yes, AFW does a good job at spotlighting the one or two local designers Adelaide has, but our fashion industry is largely desolate – the best designers leave for more experimental (and cashed-up) pastures on the east coast and the cost of production in SA means anything made here is outrageously expensive.
It’s largely an opportunity for the city’s socialites to mingle over free bubbly, and the odd locally-driven, sustainability-conscious events in Adelaide Arcade hardly make up for the fact that AFW is an excuse to encourage blind consumption.
A press release from AEDA in the wake of 2024’s AFW considered the event a success, not because of how many local designers were showcased, but because of how much was spent in the city.
AEDA said $4.1 million was spent across department stores, clothing and accessories during AFW, while total spend in the city was $36.1 million. It undoubtedly brings people into the city to buy, buy, buy, but how many of them care about whether what they’re purchasing is made locally by a talented Adelaide designer?
Other stats: 57 per cent of people surveyed bought a new outfit, and 60 per cent who attended an AFW event continued their city experience elsewhere in the CBD or North Adelaide. Again, these are not bad things, but the metric of success for AFW is on dollars spent rather than talent showcased.
Compare this to Fashion Weeks interstate which by and large centre around runway shows showcasing local designers. These also produce similar effects (bringing people into the Melbourne or Sydney CBD to shop up a storm), but at least event organisers are pretending that they care about the local scene.
It’d be better off renamed Adelaide Shopping Week, or Adelaide Rundle Mall Week, or Please Buy From Our Boutiques Week.
Also – it’s not even a bloody week! It’s three days! Not even half a week! Come on!
Some good news for our Mormon readers…
*wolf whistle* This is InSider’s polycule. Trev is just out of frame.
A PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide has painstakingly researched the history of polygamy and has suggested a way to legalise the practice in Australia.
Stay informed, daily
Perhaps riding the wave of the modern phenomenon of open relationships and polyamory, Michail Ivanov said polygamy had been documented throughout history, including in Australia.
“Polygamy has been demonstrated throughout Australia’s history amongst certain Indigenous Australian communities and certain Muslim migrants,” Ivanov explains.
“The normalisation of monogamy across most parts of the world has been influenced by labour, class, religion – particularly Christianity – and the inheritance and transfer of property.”
But there’s a slight hitch: the legal definition of marriage in Australia is “the union of two people to the exclusion of all others”.
Bad news for Mormons, the sexually hyperactive, and the modern ‘throuples’ of our generation.
But Ivanov has proposed a model that would maintain a union between two individuals while allowing a person to enter multiple marriages.
He suggests legalising polyanthropy – a form of polygamy where individuals can have multiple spouses, regardless of sex or sexuality. He also suggests that the offence of bigamy be removed while maintaining legal penalties for misleading a potential spouse about one’s marital status.
Sounds complicated… Looks complicated too! Check out this handy graphic provided to InSider by the University of Adelaide. InSider can’t make heads or tails of it, but being Mr A looks like a great time.
Two possible configurations of polygamy. Figure 2 is described as preferred and proposed for legalisation in Australia by Michail Ivanov
“The practice of polygamy clashes with traditional Christian values, which have underpinned much of Australia’s marriage laws. But in a country with no state religion, we should question how much weight we place on that factor,” he says.
“If Australia were to legalise polygamy in the way I propose, it would be the first society to do so in a manner not led or motivated by religious beliefs.”
What’s Ivanov’s motivation for the research and the proposal?
“It is a fascinating area of research and one which might garner more attention in the future,” he said.
“There needs to be more research into how polygamy would impact families in Australia, as well as the number of people who would actually choose to practise it.”
In the meantime, we’re all stuck with one husband or wife. Boring!
Bruce Djite gets into show business
Last Monday, Premier Peter Malinauskas announced the state government’s new planning policy to much fanfare at CEDA’s State for the State event in the Adelaide Convention Centre.
The shift in direction would see the abolition of SA’s 85 per cent urban infill target, the expansion of urban growth boundaries and the establishment of new park lands in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.
While conservationists will undoubtedly be dismayed about the significant tree loss caused by the new developments, event emcee and Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox said one person would be very happy about the Premier’s announcement.
“There are lots of business people in this room and population growth, planning for that, is music to their ears,” Cox said.
“In fact, I think I heard Bruce Djite from the Property Council singing earlier – all those things are definitely welcome.”
Now, we don’t think former soccer player Djite is known for his vocal stylings, but InSider can’t resist a pop culture moment and it got us thinking: what tunes would Djite sing when he is excited about a planning policy?
‘Build Me Up Buttercup’? ‘We Built this City’? Surely ‘Our House’ by Madness is up there, the title and artist name is a one-two punch for Adelaide’s planning system.
If you want to sing like Djite, we’ve got you covered. InSider rallied our friends at CityMag to build a playlist so you too can do the planning polka.
Do you think we missed a song, or have a tip for InSider? Email us. We’ll keep you anonymous. We promise.
