Halls soft drinks
The Halls soft drink company of South Australia offers the usual assortment of generic soft drink flavours, none of which are particularly memorable or remarkable. The only reason they are mentioned here is because of their rather gorgeous logographic design. The word 'Halls' is written in a san-serif typeface, and above the title is placed a rainbow arc, the colours used in the rainbow being influenced by the flavour of the particular soft drink. The device is simple, striking and elegant, and the people at Halls have been clever enough to not tamper with this winning formula for at least twenty or so years. Whenever I visit South Australia, I buy cans of Halls soft drinks to give to friends when I get back. I don't expect them to drink them: invariably they put the cans on their shelves, as decorative objects. They use such lovely colours. [CG]
Unfortunately, the plug has been pulled on Halls soft drinks. Let me explain.
Many years ago now (the 1970s, I think), Halls was bought out by Coca Cola Amatil (CCA). They took the names and flavours and continued to produce them, relocating production from Hall's original factory on the Norwood Parade (now there's an entry for 'N') to the CCA plant on Port Road, just up from the West End brewery (which is no longer in the west end either).
Along the way, CCA also bought up some other drink companies around Australia, including Kirk's, which I believe was based in Queensland.
Then, at the beginning of 2002, CCA discontinued production of drinks under the Halls banner. It seems that cost savings were the order of the day, and they decided to abandon ‘Halls&8217; in favour of ‘Kirks’.
So now SA shelves are awash with Kirks soft drinks, the artwork for which is positively stick-figurish and childish. As an example, the trendy rainbow Halls logo is replaced by a bland "KIRKS" name emblazoned across each can, and where the old Stonie ginger beer can had class, the ‘Kirks Old Stoney’ shows some old geezer bending over a soft-drink wagon.
Oh well... [CL]
Hindmarsh Island bridge
While the Sydney Harbour Bridge is famous for being stunning and the Westgate Bridge for collapsing, the Hindmarsh Island Bridge is famous for not being built.Hindmarsh Island is a drab scrap of land near Goolwa at the mouth of the Murray River. A ferry carries cars the few hundred metres to the island—a trip that becomes rapidly less quaint the longer the line-up of cars is. Developers struck up a deal with the Bannon government for a bridge to be built to the island, but construction was stalled by the Ngarrindjeri people saying the site had a sacred significance that would be damaged if the bridge were built.
The exact significance couldn’t be specified because it was ‘secret women’s business’—a phrase quickly snatched up by hungry headline and slogan writers nationwide. So what was this business? Was it genuine or a modern creation? Despite a year-long inquiry, the situation was no clearer than the waters of the Murray.
On asking a journalist who sat through the entire inquiry what the truth of the matter was, her response was, ‘I don't know’. [HV]