Former premier Steele Hall honoured with lunch on Adelaide Festival Centre stage

A lunch on an Adelaide Festival Centre stage has honoured former premier Steele Hall’s role in founding the arts precinct and his 90th birthday.

A lunch on an Adelaide Festival Centre stage has honoured former premier Steele Hall’s role in founding the arts precinct and his 90th birthday.

Hosted by Festival Centre chief executive officer Douglas Gautier, today’s lunch also included Premier Steven Marshall and Festival Centre board chairman Legh Davis, also a former Liberal state upper house member.

Mr Hall was premier from 1968-70, a South Australian Senator from 1974-77 and federal Boothby MP from 1981-1996.

Former premier Steele Hall (left) with Premier Steven Marshall at the Adelaide Festival Centre for a 90th birthday lunch for Mr Hall.

Speaking at the lunch, the Premier paid tribute to Mr Hall’s “great contribution” to the Festival Centre.

“Some people are in politics for far too long, some people are at the top for far too short a time and, I think, Steele Hall unequivocally falls into that latter category,” Mr Marshall told the lunch.

“But if you look at the outcomes, per months served as a leader of a state or a nation, I think Steele Hall must be top of the list.”
Mr Marshall described Mr Hall as a modest person, saying this was a quality not abundant in politics.

“What we see now is politicians trying to claim responsibility for other people’s work. ‘It was me,’ they all say. We’ve never seen that from Steele Hall — just somebody who has genuinely worked diligently for the people of the state the whole time he’s been in politics.”

Premier Steven Marshall (centre) at a 90th birthday lunch on an Adelaide Festival Centre stage for former premier Steele Hall (right of Premier), honouring his role in establishing the centre.

According to the Festival Centre’s website, the Adelaide Festival of Arts started to outgrow the city’s existing venues and Mr Hall, as the Liberal premier, “saw the sloping banks of the River Torrens as a natural choice for the home of the Adelaide Festival and the cultural heart of the city”.

On May 12, 1970, he sat in a bulldozer to turn the first sod, with the-then lord mayor Robert (Tom) Porter riding on the side.

The next day’s Advertiser reported that Mr Hall said he had “some feeling for the site, having been involved in its selection”. He told The Advertiser he had been struck by its suitability during a Sunday walk.

Following a public appeal launched by Mr Porter and supported by Labor premier Don Dunstan, the Festival Theatre was officially opened on June 2, 1973, by the-then Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam.

Mr Hall’s wife, Joan Hall, was a state MP from 1993 to 2006, during which time she held three ministries in John Olsen’s government: employment, tourism and youth.