Glenelg tram
Other cities have tram systems, Adelaide has a tram. Well, one tram line, from the seaside suburb of Glenelg to the city centre. The Glenelg tram has been Adelaide's one and only since the rest of the lines were closed in 1958. The carriages of the tram were originally built with a centre door, to separate the men's smoking section from the women's non-smoking section.
TransAdelaide would like to point out that smoking is now banned on all Adelaide trams, trains and buses. [HV]
Going all the way
‘South Australia—Going All the Way’ used to be on the signs at the state border in the mid 1990’s. Someone told the South Australian Government that this was kind of naughty, so they pulled the signs down and changed all the marketing slogans to something boring like the ‘Secrets of South Australia’. What a shame. [JG]Golden North
South Australia’s sole ice cream producer, and the only independently owned mainstream ice cream producer in Australia, Golden North has been in business at its mid-north headquarters of Laura for donkey’s years (that’s jargon for “I can’t find the exact date anywhere”).
They make a range of wonderful ice creams, including a “to die for” Honey ice cream and the famous Giant Twins: vanilla, vanilla-choc or vanilla-strawberry slabs of ice cream smothered in chocolate.
Until the mid 1970’s, Golden North ice products were only available north of Gawler. In fact, a friend of mine from Gawler recalled that you could only get the stuff north of the Gawler river, which runs through Gawler. They provided ice cream and milk products to the lower though mid and upper north of the state.
Golden North was then bought by National Foods and its exposure was increased drastically. Suddenly, people in Adelaide could buy Golden North products, and for those of us who were familiar with the range it was great not to have to drive north to get it.
In an interesting turn of events, National Foods divested itself of Golden North in 2001 and it became an entirely SA owned and operated company again, though now it had an in-place sales and marketing operation that allowed it to service the entire state.
If you are ever in Laura, pop in to the factory and say hello. If the factory isn’t open, visit the old Laura brewery, which conducts Ice Cream tastings at which you can get to sample some of Golden North’s finest. If you are lucky, you may get to try a one-off production special too. [CL]