Inside the fascinating life of famed Adelaide madam Stormy Summers
Stormy Summers, the late platinum-haired city legend and brothel owner, will be farewelled at Centennial Park today. Here’s a glimpse into her incredible life.
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To some she was deeply controversial, others simply colourful.
But to all, she was iconic.
Everyone in Adelaide knew the name of the late Stormy Summers — the larger than life madam, former candidate for Lord Mayor, and passionate sex work reform advocate who died on March 17, leaving a vibrant mark on our city.
A social justice warrior with links to the nefarious figures of the underworld, local names like Stormy Summers don’t come around often.
As SA mourns the loss of a cultural giant, with her funeral held at Centennial Park today, we look back through her fascinating 77 years.
Who was Stormy Summers?
Stormy by name and by nature, Ms Summers, the platinum-haired, red-lipped bombshell brothel owner, was instantly recognisable whether walking the city streets with her beloved dogs or driving her black BMW complete with personalised number plates.
Ms Summers first emigrated to Australia from Holland in 1952 as a toddler, where her family settled in Bathurst.
At 16, she left school and travelled to New Zealand where her dancing career began, then moved to Sydney, where she stripped on Kings Cross.
In the 1960s, she toured Japan, Hong Kong and Vietnam, performing on stage with comedian Bob Hope for US troops.
Then came Stormy’s Review, her first strip club in Adelaide in the early ‘70s.
In the early 90s, she established her city brothel Stormy’s, located at 155 Waymouth St and fast becoming renowned around the state.
Stormy had high standards for the girls she employed. Their health and safety was paramount. She didn’t tolerate drug use and cared for them like her own children.
According to those close to her, one of the hardest times of her life was losing her son Jason in 2000. It was an unbearable loss that she carried for the rest of her life and was still visiting his grave at Centennial Park up until a few days ago.
In 2003, a portrait by rising Adelaide artist Lauren-Jade Ryan of Ms Summers was entered into the famed Archibald Prize.
Three years later, it was pulled from auction at the eleventh hour, with The Advertiser reporting claims the artist had claimed ownership of the painting.
Stormy passed away at the Lyell McEwin Hospital on Sunday night after a short illness, just three days before her 78th birthday.
Close friend Jacquie Wong says while Stormy lived the high life for a time, she died with next to nothing.
A GoFundMe Page was set up in the hope of raising $11,000 for the Centennial Park funeral, with Ms Wong also putting in a request to Premier Peter Malinauskas for the State Government to fund part of the funeral.
As of the morning of her funeral, just over $7,000 had been raised.
Who was Stormy’s husband?
Set on the lawns of Light Square, her 2003 wedding to third husband Mark Garner was an event attended by guests as legendary as the couple themselves, described at the time by Peter Goers as a “fairytale wedding of the decade”.
Dressed in a crisp white op-shop gown with a three-metre train and holding red roses, a striking beaded headpiece around her forehead, Stormy and former bouncer Mr Garner, who was 21 years her junior, tied the knot.
Former Gypsy Jokers president Steve Williams gave her away amid a guest list of sex workers, politicians, bikies and drag queens.
Peter Goers was among them.
“It was one of the greatest events I’ve ever experienced in Adelaide,” he says.
“Light Square was closed off to the public. She wore an op-shop dress with Juliette sleeves, the blushing bride, all in white with a three-metre train.”
Stormy’s marriage to Mark Garner didn’t last, but up until last week, she was still his carer.
She was living in a housing trust home at Salisbury North and despite a life of many highs and lows, had found peace and happiness.
Tributes roll in
Paul Starick
The Advertiser’s Editor At Large recalled a personal tour of Stormy’s “boudoir” and penthouse apartment almost three decades ago.
He writes: “Either on this tour or at a subsequent visit, Stormy was responding to a review of prostitution laws ordered by the-then police commissioner, Mal Hyde, who believed the system was outdated.
“Ever one to deliver a cutting quote, The Advertiser archive records Stormy as telling me in late 1997: ‘If the laws stay like they are and police raid establishments, it drives more girls to the streets’.
“Whatever might be said about Stormy after her passing, she was a character who was true to her convictions, for which she fought determinedly and passionately.”
Peter Goers
“Stormy was coy, demure and gorgeous, flashing a brilliant smile with diamonds in her teeth.”
Goers met Stormy when she was running for lord mayor in 2000, her mission – to “legalise sex work and set up shelters for homeless children,” Goers told The Advertiser.
“She did it really well,” he says.
“We could have done worse for lord mayor and indeed have.
“I found her always unfailingly generous and happy to see you. She was a great Adelaide character and someone I had great affection and respect for.
“I loved her and I am very sorry at her passing.”
Samela Harris
“She was as game as Ned Kelly and she got a really bad time from the Adelaide establishment which has remained wowserish,” the veteran journalist said.
“It was very hard to be Stormy.”
Benedict Samuel
Adelaide born actor Benedict Samuel has spent the last 12 months working with Stormy on a documentary about her life.
“I just thought it was a story about a woman who came at the world in a completely different way to most people,” he says.
“She was ahead of her time when it came to sex workers’ rights.
“She cared for and helped so many people. Until the end of her life, she made an effort to help as many people as she possibly could, despite her own struggles.
“For someone who was often painted in a bad light, she didn’t go about shouting her good deeds, she was inspirational.”
Martin Herren
Close friend Martin Herren was at the hospital moments after Stormy passed away on Sunday night.
“It doesn’t feel real,” he says. “I can’t picture a time without her.”
“She had a heart as big as Texas, she was one of the most giving people you’d ever met.”
Mr Herren recalled when the Grand Hotel refurbished in the early 2000s, Stormy bought all their blankets and then drove around the city parklands, giving them to the homeless.
Stormy’s brothel battle and dramatic exit
After years fighting to continue running her business in Light Square, once saying she would have to be carried out in a wooden box, in December 2006, Stormy was finally booted out amid her eviction battle.
The moment, naturally, culminated in extraordinary scenes.
A fire extinguisher was tossed from a window, sparking a two-hour standoff between police and Stormy’s husband Mark Garner, then 39.
Acting Superintendent Brad Flaherty said when police entered the premise, Mr Garner barricaded himself inside and allegedly threatened police with a 30cm long kitchen knife.
Mr Garner then yelled he was going to jump off the top of the building and would turn the knife on himself.
Police negotiators eventually arrested Mr Garner and he was charged with two counts of endangering life and carrying an offensive weapon.
According to reports, Ms Summers, aged 60 at the time, watched on from a police patrol car after she was told to leave the building.
She had earlier been ordered to leave her premises of 15 years after the building owners took to her court over unpaid rent.
In a separate three-hour standoff a week earlier, Ms Summers and Mr Garner allegedly welded the doors shut and poured petrol near the doors to prevent police entering.
The five-storey building hit the market at public auction, advertised at $2 million in 2007.
At the time, it comprised a two-level penthouse, two further apartments, a level of potential office space and a bar on the ground level.
In 2012, the building which housed Stormy’s notorious brothel as completely refurbished and rebranded as the Light Apartments, with studio apartments on the market for $289,000.
The top level — Summers’ former digs — was last listed in 2022 and features a bathroom with two baths side-by-side and a rooftop pool with views of the city.
It was sold in 2016 for $950,000.
Stormy for mayor: ‘Put your tick in my box’
Stormy ran for Adelaide Lord Mayor in 2000, ultimately losing to Alfred Huang,
On January 8 2000, The Advertiser reported the candidacy of Stormy Summers, and her push to legalise sex work in the city and establish shelters for kids.
At the time, she said if she became Lord Mayor all sex workers would operate in “safe houses” where their health and wellbeing was assured.
She also intended to increase shelter for homeless youths and boost support and outreach for the elderly.
“No-one should be on any misunderstanding about this”, Ms Summers said.
“I am a single-issue candidate for Lord Mayor of Adelaide. I make no apology for this. One of the few social issues that wasn’t effectively dealt with in the 1970s was the reform of the sex industry in South Australia.
“Unfortunately, the lily-livered crop of politicians that we had in the 1980s failed to come to grips with this issue.”
The same article reported that in 1994, Ms Summers established the Sex Reform Association to lobby for sex work law reform.
It is still illegal to operate a brothel in South Australia and sex work itself is criminalised under state legislation.
However, there are currently discussions in SA surrounding the implementation of the Nordic Model — also called the Equality Model — which is a system of partial sex work decriminalisation whereby it is illegal to pay someone for sex and engage in sex for which you have paid – but not to receive that money and render your services.
Continued push for law reform
As recently as 2019, Ms Summers offered her powerful voice to the debate to legalise sex work completely.
In a piece written for the Sunday Mail about how archaic legal principles devastated the lives of women in the 1800s, she said sex work should be legalised, not decriminalised.
“Decriminalisation? That just means you can have two girls working out the front of your house, and nobody wants that,” Ms Summers said.
“Imagine an elderly couple with two hookers working on their road. That’d be a terrible thing.
“Same with girls working near schools.”
Ms Summers, who gave her age as “21, love”, said full legalisation of sex work would help both the workers and their customers.
“You have to look at the dangers of girls working on their own,” she said.
“No, what we need are safe houses where the girls can work in safety. If it’s decriminalised then there’s no control over health checks, nobody even knows if condoms are being used.”
Miss Summers, who said she’s long retired from the industry, said she “ran a good house” at Stormy’s and had only occasional run-ins with the police and authorities.
“I don’t really know what’s going on in the industry anymore, I have nothing to do with it these days,” she said.
“But I do think you should have to apply for a licence to run a house, and the fees for that licence should be kept low to keep the criminal element out of it.”
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Originally published as Inside the fascinating life of famed Adelaide madam Stormy Summers
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