How the Stobie put SA in pole position | Peter Goers

The Stobie pole is as emblematic of SA as bluestone, the frog cake, Farmers Union Iced Coffee and the Hills Hoist – but more crucial than any of them, writes Peter Goers.

Watt’s up, Doc? At 8am on a crisp, clement autumn day in beautiful downtown Angle Park, I met Brian Docking, known as “Doc”.

He is the Stobie pole manufacturing co-ordinator at the vast SA Power Networks property on Grand Junction Rd. He’s about to take the first ever public tour of the Stobie pole factory.

The tours are one of the most popular events of the History Festival and a full day of public tours booked out almost as quickly as a Taylor Swift concert and, unlike the latter, these tours are free and interesting.

I secured the last available ticket which is why I was there at 8am rather than at a more civilised hour. It was well worth it.

Brian Docking is an heroic worker.

He’s a child of the Electricity Trust of SA having been raised in Leigh Creek, apprenticed to ETSA and has spent his entire working life of 46 years with ETSA and its privatised successor, SA Power Networks.

Brian Docking, Stobie pole manufacturing co-ordinator at SA Power Networks, Angle Park. He’s standing next to the original Stobie pole from 1924 with Peter Goers. Picture: Supplied.

He’s made Stobie poles for 33 years and his knowledge of Stobies is profound, unequalled and, moreover, he loves them.

And we all love the Stobie pole. “Doc” is leading the celebrations for the centenary of the Stobie pole. I loathe the overuse of the word icon. Why should we couple a Stobie pole with a smoky Orthodox holy picture? The Stobie pole is as emblematic of SA as bluestone, the frog cake, the pie floater, Farmers Union Iced Coffee and the Hills Hoist, but more crucial than any of them.

T’was invented by the engineer James Cyril Stoble in 1924 and the Adelaide Electricity Supply Company bought the patent for 500 pounds. The very first Stobie pole is proudly displayed at Angle Park as a monument to the blessed memory of its creator.

Much has come from this one erection, so to speak, and there are now in excess of 650,000 Stobie poles throughout SA and the development of SA in the 20th Century would have been impossible without them.

It’s the world’s original engineered electricity pole and it was necessary because SA lacks tall timber for poles and timber poles are prone to termites, instability, fire and storms.

The Stobie pole is largely resistant to fire and flood and is very strong. They are also very durable and the oldest extant Stobie is from 1934 and still going strong.

The Stobie pole is as emblematic of SA as frog cakes, according to Peter Goers. Picture: Keryn Stevens

… Pie floaters. Picture: Supplied.

… And the Hills Hoist, as seen in 1963. Picture: Supplied.

Brian “Doc” Docking, describes the Stobie as “the Rolls Royce of power poles”. He and fellow workers make up to 24 Stobies a day. Because power is now connected underground, the Stobies they make are for replacement of existing poles. The factory is immense and pristine, and I’ve rarely met happier and more engaged workers. They love what they make and they were thrilled at the interest in the tour.

Doc was the perfect tour guide. We saw the process of constructing Stobies on huge conveyor belts – steel, bolts, concrete slump slumped in and the poles are cured for seven days.

It was amazing to know that I’m part of a Stobie pole. Anyone who’s written for an SA newspaper in the last 100 years will have their work shoved up the bottom of a Stobie pole as newspaper is used to stop the wet concrete running out. What an honour.

Each Stobie costs $2500 and they are a green pole in that 650,000 Stobies have saved 650,000 trees being razed and used as poles, and each part of disused Stobies is recycled.

In the 1980s, SA artist Ann Newmarch led the idea of community artists painting Stobies, which is cheery.

The Stobie pole is vital to SA and also used in Darwin, Tasmania and New Zealand but why didn’t the design sweep the world? Well, they’re ugly and they kill people who drive into them but, apart from that, they are a triumph – an SA triumph.

SA Power Networks is majority owned by a Chinese company and some Stobies are made from imported Chinese steel made from exported Australian iron ore. That’s the way of the world.

When you use electricity in SA it comes via Stobie poles. The Stobie pole is on first and watt’s on second. Viva the Stobie pole.