Le Cornu latest in longline of Adelaide business icons gone ... but not forgotten
WITH Wednesday’s announcement that South Australian furniture business Le Cornu will soon shut up shop, we look back at some other once household names that have disappeared.
WITH Wednesday’s announcement that South Australian furniture business Le Cornu will soon shut up shop, we look back at some other once household names that have disappeared.
AMSCOL
After opening its doors in 1922, the Adelaide Milk Supply Co-Operative Limited factory in Carrington St supplied bottled milk to the city and suburbs and also made cream, cheese, ice cream and butter. By 1940, AMSCOL had established factories at Woodside, Mt Torrens, Murray Bridge, Kadina and Cummins. However, in the 1980s it was taken over by Streets and ceased trading not long after.
GEORGE GROSS AND HARRY WHO
The fashion labels founded in Adelaide in 1973 were loved by women around the world, including the late Princess Diana. When designers George Gross and Harry Watt decided to retire in 2014 after 40 years in the business, they moved out of David Jones and closed their boutique at The Metro at Unley and are now mentoring Adelaide’s Liza Emanuele. Many of their 18 SA staff have stayed in the industry and are now working for Paolo Sebastian and Australian Fashion Labels. Some have started up their own labels, such as Kalila Stewart-Davis who sells her Namoi designs from her Glen Osmond Rd boutique.
GREENHILLS ADVENTURE PARK
Victor Harbor’s Greenhills Adventure Park closed in May, ending more than three decades of fun. The park, which opened in 1982, had water slides, golf, archery, go-karts and rock climbing. There are now plans to turn the site into housing allotments. Its attractions were recently sold at auction, with paddle boats, aqua bikes, canoes and archery among the hot-ticket items.
JOHN MARTIN’S
By 1990 one-in-three South Australian households had a Johnnies card, and visiting the Magic Cave and attending the John Martin’s Christmas pageant were rites of passage for every child. In 1998, when the 132-year-old retailer closed its doors, its 1500 employees — many of whom had never worked anywhere else — wept as they served their loyal customers for the last time. The flagship store in Rundle Mall was demolished and redeveloped as a new modern shopping complex for David Jones, which had bought Johnnies in the mid-1990s.
JUDELLS
It began in business in 1921, when Eric and Agnes Judell opened a millinery shop in Rundle St, but the up-market women’s clothing retailer shut its Burnside, Mitcham Square and Glenelg stores in April, resulting in the loss of 14 jobs. Owner Richard Ockenden, who bought Judells’ sole Rundle Mall store in 1983 and expanded it to 14 outlets across the state and interstate before the global financial crisis hit, said high running costs — including soaring electricity bills — and penalty rates had made running the small business tough.
MAGIC MOUNTAIN
The Glenelg theme park, regarded by some as an eyesore, opened in 1982. It boasted four water slides— which were the largest in the southern hemisphere — a carousel, minigolf, bumper boats, dodgem cars and sky cycles, pinball machines, a shooting gallery and arcade games. In 2004 controversy surrounded its closure as part of the final stage of the Holdfast Shores development. Two years later it was replaced by The Beachouse.
MARINELAND
The main attractions of the West Beach marine park, founded in 1969, were performing dolphins, sea lions and resident celebrity pelican Mr Percival from the iconic 1970s film Storm Boy. The park closed in 1988 and is now the site of the aerial adventure park Mega Adventure, which opened last year.
THE MUSES
The Beatles’ Hey Jude/Revolution was at the top of the charts when The Muses opened its flagship record store in Rundle Mall in 1968. At the height of its success, The Muses operated six stores throughout SA and won nine ARIA Awards as Independent Retailer of the Year. The Muses closed its bricks and mortar business in 2011, but it continues to trade online.
THE PIE CART
An Adelaide institution, the pie cart was on the corner of Franklin and King William streets. In 1860 Cowley’s pie cart opened for business, with its signature dish the pie floater (a meat pie served in pea soup) loved by many a late-night reveller until it stopped trading in 2010. The National Trust has recognised the pie cart as the longest-serving eatery in the state and the pie floater has been named a South Australian Heritage Icon.
YOUTHWORKS
The brainchild of Adelaide’s now Lord Mayor Martin Haese, the Youthworks fashion chain started as a small boutique in Regent Arcade in 1993. Youthworks grew to have 16 stores across Adelaide and Melbourne, achieving sales turnover of $20 million in 2003-04 when it employed 150 staff. In 2005 the business was bought by national retail group Brazin and rebadged, but the name Youthworks popped up again in 2007 in James Place. That incarnation of Youthworks, also owned by Haese, traded until 2010.
In the nineties and early noughties, Youthworks was the place to work if you were a trendy teen or twenty-something like Nancy Timpano, who went on to become the face of Le Cornu for seven years.
— WITH BOB BYRNE