Peter Goers: The History Trust rushed to be the Giant Scotsman’s saviour and the repository of unwanted big things

Why should a council that’s sacked people and cut funding keep a crumbling, expensive statue no one wants, writes Peter Goers.

You can’t have everything. I mean where would you put it? We love big things in Australia from the Big Worm to the Big Wine Cask. Here in SA we love the Big Lobster at Kingston SE, the Big Rocking Horse at Gumeracha and the Big Galah at Kimba which may soon glow in the dark if Kimba gets the Big Nuclear Dump.

Big things can be big problems. Often they seemed like a good idea at the time. They are super-sized kitsch and are notoriously difficult to sustain financially and to keep in good repair. People love big things but don’t stop sufficiently to support the businesses which own them.

The Giant Scotsman is much loved at Scotty’s Motel on Main North Road and he was beautifully renovated recently. Incredibly, the curmudgeon and Australia’s greatest novelist Patrick White stayed at Scotty’s. The owners of Scotty’s are contemplating a huge redevelopment and there may be no room for the good old, big old Giant Scotsman. Och aye!

Is this really our biggest spending priority? Picture: Supplied

Greg Mackie to the rescue. Greg Mackie is a former and very good bookseller, public service pooh-bah, boutique festival founder, former lord mayoral candidate, future lord mayoral candidate, Adelaide City councillor and self-styled “people’s keeper of our State History Collection” as chief executive of the History Trust of SA.

He is on a Santa cause but he doesn’t want to put his claws on Santa.

The Big Santa is a rather spooky looking 15m-tall, three-tonne, fibreglass big thing. He has graced the facade of John Martin’s (of blessed memory), David Jones and the tower of Adelaide Central Market.

Then he’s been falling apart and unseen in very expensive storage.

Adelaide City Council has owned Big Santa since 2014 and now doesn’t want him, and would like the SA Government through Councillor Mackie to take him.

The council is broke. It will cost $34,000 to restore Big Santa and it costs $90,000 to display him.

Naturally, he’s only displayed at Christmas and does anyone rush into the market because it has a Big Santa? The market is being controversially redeveloped which will hamper access for years and I don’t mean a Christmas hamper.

Councillor Alexander Hyde is now trying to fix council’s finances.

Scotty’s Motel’s Giant Scotsman. Picture: Dean Martin

For once I agree with Councillor Hyde who wants rid of Big Santa and its financial impost. He wants Councillor Mackie at the History Trust to take Big Santa. Councillor Mackie and the History Trust rushed to be the Giant Scotsman’s saviour and to be the repository of unwanted big things, but they don’t want Big Santa. So, put up or shut up.

I love our heritage. I’ve campaigned to save many heritage buildings – unlike the History Trust which claims only to protect movable heritage. The storage of our state’s history collection is often ruinously leaky and its security worries many. The Marshall Government has promised better storage and this is to be saluted.

Why should a city council which has made many staff redundant, slashed funding for the homeless and desperately needs funds to fix the King William Street bridge and the Torrens Weir spend a fortune on a Big Santa no one wants. The council already has the useless Big Empty Lot on O’Connell Street. The History Trust is part of the Department of Education. Surely $90,000 a year is better spent on public education. It’s time Big Santa was sleighed off. Will you miss him? I won’t. Bah humbug.

Peter Goers can be heard weeknights and Sundays on ABC Radio Adelaide.