Matthew Abraham: The big question is how the Marshall Government let this happen
If West End follows the normal pattern it’s my guess the last jobs will be gone like the brewery and its lights, replaced by townhouses on a broken Port Road, writes Matthew Abraham.
Opinion
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The last worker leaving the West End brewery won’t need to bother turning off the lights. That’s because they’re not turning the “brewery lights” on this year. One less thing, as Forrest Gump might say.
A bad dose of COVID paranoia was behind the recent silly decision to cancel the West End Christmas light display on the grassy banks of the mighty Torrens at Thebarton. Thor in his volcano, the cow jumping over the moon, the whale that one spectacular year got washed by flood waters down to West Beach – all frozen in darkness.
In retrospect, it was an omen.
On Wednesday we learned that West End isn’t just pulling the plug on the lights, it’s pulling the bung on the whole damn keg.
After 160 years of brewing the brown frothy stuff in Adelaide, West End will close in June next year, shifting its production to the east.
The exit will see the initial loss of more than half of its 94 direct jobs, with 40 staff to be offered “sales and sponsorship roles”.
If this follows the normal corporate pattern of sugar-coating closures, it’s my guess that within a year or two, all of those jobs will be gone, and who knows how many further down the supply chain.
West End is owned by Lion Australia, a subsidiary of Japanese beverage giant Kirin. The cold. hard facts are the Thebarton brewery is small beer to a global conglomerate. In Tokyo, they’d might need to ask Siri to find Thebby.
But the loss of the brewery is genuinely sad for our beaut city and state. Even if you’re a wowser of the lips-that-touch-liquor-shall-never-touch-mine variety, you’d surely have to harbour a soft spot for West End.
So many of us have memories of going as little tackers, in our jim-jams and dressing gowns, eyes as big as pie plates, to see the brewery lights. West End is a generous sponsor of sport, big and small, but says this will continue after it exits SA.
Each year, the SANFL winning team’s colours adorn the brewery chimney. People queue to take home water from the coin-operated machine that draws from the same aquifer used to make the beer, with all cash raised going to charity.
The fate of all these small happinesses is now uncertain.
The only people cheering on the brewery’s closure are those property developers who somehow think swapping manufacturing jobs for overpriced townhouses is a viable long-term economic strategy for the state. What geniuses.
With the Coke factory and E.S. Wigg and Son stationers both now abandoned, that strip of Port Road will look like a boulevard of broken dreams once the brewery closes.
The big question is how the Marshall Government let this happen. Lion Nathan says it didn’t seek government support but the government should have had its radar on high alert. You don’t shut down pubs in a pandemic and not expect it to hurt beer sales.
Premier Steven Marshall pours boundless enthusiasm and corporate hand-outs by the bucketload into his pet project, Lot Fourteen, on the old RAH site on North Terrace.
The language surrounding what goes on in Lot Fourteen is impenetrable PR wah-wah. It sounds about as relevant to our daily lives as Area 51, the classified US defence facility in Nevada, said to be the home of crashed UFOs and alien abductions.
But we all get what goes on inside a brewery. Perhaps if the government spent less time chasing pet projects and devoted more time securing traditional jobs like those we’re about to lose at West End, we mightn’t lose so many of those jobs.
As one West End worker told Seven News at knock-off time, “they are a big company, a strong company, I don’t know why they don’t fight a little bit more to keep that kind of industry alive”.
Now Lion is asking South Australians to remain loyal to its brews, soon to be trucked in from Sydney and Brisbane. Good luck with that.
The Red Tin Army is frothing at the mouth. One of them tweeted: “I’m guttered (sic). So many tins still need to be consumed. Vale”.
Cheers, big ears. Coopers Pale Ale, anyone?
