Remember "Friday night is speedway night in Adelaide!"? And the cartoon "Almost everybody goes to Rowley Park on Friday nights" which showed everyone from a grandmother to ambulance drivers and a jockey all making their way into the speedway.

Ah yes, the golden era of speedway with Kym Bonython and his company Speedway Pty Ltd.

In its heyday Rowley Park Speedway was attracting crowds every Friday night upwards of 15,000. In 1965 a reported crowd of 20,000 "Pie Eaters" (Kim Bonython's nickname for the regular speedway crowd) packed into the speedway to see Australia's first Demolition Derby. The Police were called in to handle traffic and hundreds of fans were turned away as the 'House Full' signs went up. The derby itself had 100 entrants and lasted for over 75 minutes.

Bonython himself wasn't just the promoter and director of Rowley Park Speedway. He was also a speedcar driver who had considerable success winning the South Australian Championship on two occasions. He was also involved in some of the more spectacular crashes seen at the speedway though luckily he didn't suffer any serious injuries at the wheel in an era when driver safety wasn't a major concern and major injuries or even death was accepted as just part of the sport.

Regular posters and followers of the Adelaide Remember When Facebook page recently posted their memories of Rowley Park;

Leighton Rutt I went there on Fridays nights on many occasions, watching greats like Kim Bonython, Jack Scot (Scotty I think he was called) and many others such as the great Bob Tattersall, Bill Wigzell and Ray Skipper. Those were the days. Hence if you were near the fence I think the term 'Here's mud in your eye' was conceived LOL!!

Eddie Barbara Barton The early days of Rowley Park were great entertainment. Nicknamed the "Pughole" because of it's location and the texture of the surface that the cars, solo's', sidecars and the "old stockies" plus "TQ"s raced on. Those early day's had great "entertainers" on the track who gave there all with the likes of Jack Young (solo) 99 Joe Blow Schubert, Old Smokey, Kym Bonython plus many Interstate and Overseas competitors who judge Rowley Park as one of the best tracks to race at in Australia at that time!

Rod Harrison We used to catch the train from Salisbury to get to Rowley Park. You could often collect enough empty deposit bottles to pay for your entry ticket plus the train ticket home.

Shaun Oxley Speedway was never he same after rowley closed and moved to speedway park. At Rowley Park you were always so close to everything, I remember getting showered by stones and mud every time the cars sped around the bend.

Carol Shannon I remember standing right by the fence when I was a kid and

the clods of dirt would fly up from the track and you were smothered in wet 

clay. Your hair was full of lumps of it! I loved it and still love motor sport to 

this day. We used to go and watch "Jack Larritt" I think his son Jacky drove 

the car and the family were friends of Dads. Beautiful memories

Rowley Park Speedway's long-time Clerk of Course was Glen Dix, who would later become internationally famous as the man who waved the checkered flag at the Australian Grand Prix during its years in Adelaide from 1985 to 1995. 

Due to complaints from residents about noise and the on-street parking, as well as the track becoming too small for the faster cars appearing on the scene, the speedway was closed after the 23rd meeting of the 1978/79 season,

I often pass the housing estate where Rowley Park used to be, on Torrens Road, Brompton (on my way to the football) and I'm immediately taken back to those summer nights with the huge crowds, the smell of the petrol fumes, the cars flying around the track, the noise and the sheer excitement of Rowley Park Speedway.

Geez it was great!!!!

Any memories you would like to share?

Today’s ARW Blog looks back at an earlier post about drinking milk at school; In 1950 the Australian Government introduced a scheme for school children to receive free milk. I think the idea was that it would ensure that all Australian children would be getting fresh milk and a good dose of calcium each day. 

The idea might have been fine but in practice there were a few problems. The truck would normally drop the milk off at about 9.30 and recess wasn't until 10.45 (from memory) and on a hot Adelaide summer day the milk would go off. No refrigeration was available and teacher made you drink the milk, off or not. Put my wife off milk for years.

Some of our posters recalled the scheme had also been introduced in England; “I recall the rich (ish) kids at our school bringing chocolate powder to mix with their milk. I was promoted to milk monitor but was sacked after one day for locking the other monitor in the milk shed. And Maggie Thatcher axed the milk scheme for the over 7 year olds in England in 71 to save money - the press at the time labeled her 'Maggie Thatcher - Milk Snatcher'.

Another remembered; “lining up to accept the sunny boy type contained milk!! I often still remember that smell, I would run to the back of the line continuously until they were all gone!!!

One poster had happy memories; “I remember this but our milk was frozen and was always fresh we had to supply our own cups and we use to have milk monitors on a hot day our milk thawed out and was still fresh. During winter our milk was put in a fridge that some parents donated to the school so our milk was just right for drinking. In the end we used the fridge during summer time as well and didn't have frozen milk anymore”!

And to prove it wasn’t all bad, yet another person remembered; “Fond memories of the free milk for me at Cairns in the early 70s. Couldn't wait till little lunch. Always participated in risky sports and never broken a bone in my life. They should reintroduce this at schools. Might help the dairy farmers as well. Win win”.

The free school milk scheme lasted until the early 70’s and was scrapped.

Interesting thought by our last poster suggesting it should be re-introduced today. It would certainly be a big help to the local dairy farmers and I believe there are a lot of kids who don’t get much of a breakfast, might be a way of improving school kids general health.

What do you think?

There was some discussion on ABC Radio just recently about the 'flying saucer' building that was in Melbourne Street North Adelaide around the 70s and 80s. 

It was called 'Futuro' and was owned by Derek Jolly, entrepreneur and "larger than life" character who was responsible for much of the development of Melbourne Street in the early 70's. The building caused something of a stir among local residents at the time who felt it did not fit with the character of the area. (I think I see their point!) 

The Futuro site was eventually purchased for the construction of an apartment building. As a result the Futuro was then relocated to Provost Street.

Ed Briedis, the Chairman of The North Adelaide Society sent this photo to the ABC, of the 'Futuro' when it was in the carpark behind Deccas Restaurant.

Some of our readers remembered the space ship building quite well while others started to doubt that it ever existed because it was such an unusual building. One poster recalled; "Remember it well because I was a little girl and my father drove me past one day and told me that it was a real spaceship. I could hardly wait to go to school the next day to share this amazing news with my friends ... (remember when you did actually have to WAIT to tell people things?! We did have a phone, but definitely off-limits to the kids)"

Another commented; "Those were the days...people like Derek had a real sense of adventure....most of the developments these days are designed to keep the banks happy in order to get approvals...and as a conseqence...boring...."

And still another; "Remember it well and even went inside. My mum used to work at the Magic Flute and Derek Jolly was a good friend of the owner. He would often come around to the kitchen door from the car park to see if there were any leftovers to take to the flying saucer"!

Dave Wally, writing on his regular blog, Weekend Notes commented; The Futuro house was made in the 1960's and early 1970's and was a round prefabricated house originally designed as a ski cabin by a Finnish man. It was quite popular originally although ultimately only less than 100 were made.

It certainly polarised opinion at the time, but after Derek Jolley's death the house was sold and has now "flown" to a remote location at Deep Creek, somewhere in the Cape Jervis area.

Former Adelaide radio personality John Kenneally stumbled on the Futuro space ship just recently while hiking the Heysen trail. It's now located at Blowhole Creek on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

It's good to know that this little piece of Adelaide's recent past has survived and has a new home.