South Australia’s identity drives success – from Gather Round to naval shipbuilding | Paul Starick

There’s a simple ingredient behind the stunning success of everything from AFL Gather Round to SA securing huge naval shipbuilding contracts, Paul Starick writes.

Four of South Australia’s best-known personalities, from different generations and walks of life, united for the common good in a country town almost three hours drive from Adelaide.

Sports legends Tony Modra, Al Green and Les Burdett mingled almost anonymously in the crowd at The Advertiser’s drought relief party in Peterborough on Monday.

Joining them in casually wandering about was Premier Peter Malinauskas – freshly emerged from the national spotlight of AFL Gather Round.

He brought most of his cabinet, including Treasurer Stephen Mullighan and Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis, who also mixed with a crowd of about 1000 farmers, children and people from the district.

Tony Modra pouring West End Draught at the Peterborough party. Picture: Ben Clark

Speaking from my experience growing up on a lower Eyre Peninsula farm, The Advertiser’s Peter Party was a typical country gathering – with a dose of star power.

It was also among the most meaningful things I’ve been involved with in more than 30 years at The Advertiser.

The reason was more than just the result of the For Pete’s Sake campaign, with Mr Malinauskas on April 8 announcing a $55m drought relief package.

It was the realisation, yet again, that the South Australian community has a unique ability to build trusted connections and unite in the state’s interest

People identify as South Australians and take great pride in acting for the good of the state, often modestly and without seeking glory.

Few, if any people have achieved the fame in SA of Tony Modra. At the height of 1990s Modra mania, inaugural Adelaide Crows coach Graham Cornes accurately declared the glamour forward’s star power in his home state at the time was bigger than Sir Donald Bradman’s during his era.

Thirty years on, a humble and self-deprecating Modra was pulling free West End beers in the front bar of the Peterborough Hotel for partygoers, empathetically trading tales with farmers about the devastating drought.

Helping him out was Burdett, the doyen of curators around the globe, displaying the knockabout unpretentiousness for which he is renowned.

Premier Peter Malinauskas with Phillip Ferguson, Kevin Malycha, Anthony Malycha and Bridget Woods at the Peterborough party. Picture: Ben Clark

Outside the pub, the Premier was mingling for hours, often sitting down and chatting – particularly listening – to men, women and children.

Further down Peterborough’s main street, he later joined the kids at Green’s basketball coaching clinic. The Premier expressed his love of sport by leading a hoop-shooting competition, delighting the participants – many of them farm kids enjoying some much-needed relief from the oppressive, relentless pressure of drought.

Peter Malinauskas with kids at Peterborough’s basketball arena. Picture: Ben Clark

The SA community’s ability to strongly unite has been expressed repeatedly over the years.

It’s the key ingredient for making the state world class. It’s behind the stunning success of things like AFL Gather Round, plus securing and delivering multi-billion dollar naval shipbuilding contracts.

In the past, this trait has been condemned as parochialism or introverted defensiveness.

There has been a tendency to lack collective ambition, particularly in the wake of the 1991 State Bank financial disaster.

Thinker in Residence Charles Landry in 2003 argued Adelaide has “a tendency to be self-satisfied, introverted and defensively positive about itself’’.

But things have changed. My Victorian colleague, Herald Sun sports reporter Jon Ralph, accurately reflected after the latest Gather Round on the eagerness of South Australians to showcase our capital city. “How do you like Adelaide?’ is the question dozens of times a day. It’s not needy, it’s pride in the state’s improvement and their desire to share it,” he wrote.

Too right. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s been a sea-change in the state’s mood and ambition. We were proud of dodging the worst of Covid, with comparatively light restrictions, while reversing the brain drain and growing the economy.

Through adversity, we’ve retained that unique spirit of pulling together as South Australians. Long may we prosper.

Originally published as South Australia’s identity drives success – from Gather Round to naval shipbuilding | Paul Starick