Port Pirie stages its annual Smelters Picnic after not being able to hold it in 2016 due to state blackout
IT’S a 114-year-old tradition, and Port Pirie wasn’t about to let its annual famous Smelters Picnic be disturbed again. Facing yet a new challenge, just as well the city didn’t this time, as Bernard Humphreys found out.
WHEN wild storms and a statewide power blackout hit last year, things could hardly have looked worse for Port Pirie’s famous Smelters Picnic. But then they did.
A community event that’s been run for 114 years and draws up to 10,000 people, the picnic was wound up early as the winds hit last September 28.
Then news that the venue, the Yorke Peninsula’s city’s Memorial Oval, would be unavailable this year because of redevelopment had organisers contemplating a forced year off.
But Pirie wasn’t having that, so it was instead moved next door to the smaller Memorial Park, where it was so successful on Wednesday that the new site may become its permanent home.
According to locals at the show, much of the credit goes to Ray Walters, who stepped into the picnic co-ordinator’s role when that became vacant “because I’m retired and everybody else on the committee is still working”. The 71-year-old insists he’s only the “acting“ co-ordinator, but he’s thrilled with the comeback of a carnival-type event that’s much like a miniature country show without all the livestock.
“If it hadn’t have gone ahead this year it would have been a disaster, really,” Mr Walters said.
“It’s absolutely wonderful for children and I can remember as a kid myself going to (previous venue) Crystal Brook and we always looked forward to this day. We’d get our new sandshoes and our new outfits and everything, then as a teenager I looked forward to buying a water pistol so I could soak everybody else.”
New to Port Pirie, local regional council events manager Genevieve Pontikinas said she was amazed at how big the event was, but after moving to town from Adelaide six months ago, she’s quickly learned that this is a community that meets change with a can-do attitude.
The oval is just one redevelopment in the city and large sections of its CBD have been closed off for months because of a revamp, so the council will next month host a street party to celebrate its new look.
“I’m just amazed at this event. It’s such an important historical event for Port Pirie,” she said.
And local Kara Macklin, 17, meanwhile, summed up what the day means to her and her friends.
“I just love it. I come here every year, it’s huge fun,” she said.