Stobie poles: a century of powering South Australia
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Discover the story of the Stobie pole, a true icon of South Australia, integral to our community for nearly a century.
Invented by engineer James 'Cyril' Stobie at the Adelaide Electric Supply Company (AESCo), the Stobie pole was developed to meet the unique challenges of using traditional wooden poles in South Australia. Constructed from steel and concrete, these durable poles have reliably supported our electricity supply for decades.
This documentary examines how Stobie poles are made, compares them to wooden poles, and discusses their future in the era of renewable energy. It also showcases how local artists have turned these practical structures into vibrant works of art through painting and mosaicking, enhancing our local landscapes.
0:45 - Introduction to Stobie poles
1:53 - Turning Stobie poles into art
4:34 - Stobie poles history and origin
8:47 - The engineering and manufacturing process
12:19 - The future and economics of the Stobie pole
Music
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Simple SA had few tall trees
Necessity is the mother of all invention.
And termites
Those things ruined many a front end on my cars in the 70s & 80s!
I believe he was also paid a shilling per pole in royalies.
I had to convert all the imperial drawings over to metric. They also had a mold they held over the hole and pour the concerte in as a footing. Which made it easy to replace the pole after they were bend by cars. They bend over but still keep the wires off the ground. Were as timber shear off at the ground and you would have wires on the ground.
Happy birthday Stobie Poles. I had a 1977 Toyota Corolla vs Stobie Pole incident. Stobie Pole won.
They always win.
Hit one with my XW but wasn't going fast
Those mosaics on the poles are great
Go the stobies
This is his wife, I come from Adelaide but now live in Sydney. Give me a stobie any day over those ugly wooden poles, I even call them stobie poles and no one knows what I am talking about. Love this video.
South Australia didn't have Trees to make into power poles
spent 15yrs in adelaide i noticed the stobie poles thought why aren't they used around OZ more often
seem better than the old wooden rotten lampoles we see in vic etc
The stoby should have been a world wide phenomenon but the time scales involved with power poles meant the "I'll be gone before these need to be replaced" mentality to prevail. A damm shame but at least SA got the benefit from them.
We bury our power lines, thanks.
Bung fritz
Stobie Pole
Frog Cake
and Cooper's Ale...
Pie Floater
Fruchocs
Darrell Lea
and Popeye...
Victor Harbor Horse Tram
Coffin Bay Oysters
Farmer's Union Iced Coffee
Brush Fencing
Goyder Line
Mt Lofty City View
Penfolds Grange
and AMSCOL...
Stonie, Halls & Woodies drinks - ginger beer and lemonade...
Thousand Voices Choir
West End Brewery...
Hills Hoist
Malls Balls
Cream Buns (that's Kitchener's....!)
Humphrey Bear
Golden North
O-Bahn
Silver sand on beaches
jetties into sunsets....
Parks and gardens....
churches...!!
SOUTH AUSTRALIA...
HOME!!!
Interesting history, and have a couple of questions about the beloved Stobies: Why are some painted (usually grey) on the bottom section facing the direction of traffic?
Also I've noticed some have the street names painted on them in a yellowy colour, but looks like they haven't been done for a long time, are they going to be redone again?
To cover graffiti
@@MartintheTinmanto cover the mosaics 😂
Never knew that type of pole had a name, but there was one at the end of the street I grew up in. It was the last pole and had many houses being fed from it. All the other poles were treated timber, and although there's not a termite problem in Tasmania in the time that I lived in that street all the timber poles had been replaced except for the one at the end of the street! I'm sure that the timber section that supports the lines would have been replaced at some point. So I've learnt something today! 👍
And proved that there not only in south Australia 😂❤
No idea why this got advertised to me, but a fascinating 5 minutes!
I guessed termites or koalas. 😂
Knowing what these are is critical for people around the world who are trying to get better at the game Geoguessr because they're a remarkably consistent way of differentiating South Australia from other states.
A modern well behaved Stobie pole doesn`t jump out in front of cars any more . I do remember watching a guy climbing to the top of a SWER line under construction at Venus Bay 50 years ago . He`d climb like somebody going up a coconut palm . At that time we were pushing the hwy through to Streaky Bay .We were opening up Australia bigtime . I lived in Venus and remember being connected , no more kero fridge or gas mantle light or 32v freelights .
Being able to extend the network to support growing communities is definitely something we are proud of.
I remember holidaying in Venus Bay as a kid in the 70s & catching triple header tommies from the jetty!
Stobie poles were incorporated into the now extinct tram and electric bus systems in Hobart and Launceston, a few still remaining usefully holding up power lines.
There’s a few in Alice Springs and Mt Isa too
@@Stefan_Eccles Still quite a few in Broken Hill. The odd thing about using them in Tasmania is that unlike those other places there are plenty of trees and no destructive termite species. Unclear what % of poles were Stobie Vs Timber
In the Pilbara power poles were fabbed from surplus rails to resist cyclone forces,termites,fire and cars don't stand a chance.
That's impressive 😊
Alex Prideaux did a great job making this video!
The suburb I live in has stobie poles. I am in Hobart. Even though we have plenty of timber resources, I am surprised stobie poles aren't more common down here
Nah it better to turn good furniture timber into toilet paper.
The guy who supplied the timber for house in qld went back to Tassie. He told me timber cutters are cutting down old growth forests and he goes thru and takes the too large logs they don't take.
Love stobie artwork
Thank you SAPN for answering questions I have had for years.
Why is the US patent office being referenced?
Who actually WANTS a power pole in front of their house. I'm off grid with none, no limits on vehicles or tractors.
A power pole in front of your house usually means a street light keeping your car in your driveway safer making thieves more visible. What I dont like is the stobie in front of my house is they put it a metre into alignment with my driveway. For decades my driveway only had a walking gateway even though its wide enough for a car. My house was built in 1864 so was there before the pole- sa water also put the meter in the way of the driveway too, but I dug it into the ground with a lid over.
The person who wanted a mural with an Australian bird like the other ones in the area. Probably funded by government, but unlike most other modern art actually might make the suburb better.
2:15 Look a Soviet Belarusian mosaic!
Mildura (Vic) still has quite a few stobies, but they are slowly disappearing.
Great vid. Thanks for posting. Im in Vic but like to visit SA . Have known about Stobie Poles since Early 70s.
They are certainly a delightful sight when traveling between our beautiful states.
Are any of the originals still in service?
My father ,Bruce Chapman , worked for ETSA and spent most of his working life boring holes for poles all over the lower SE. He loved his job because it took him somewhere different every day. He spent his retirement years walking up to 10 klm a day until dementia took him from us, an ETSA man for life.
Super interesting!
I worked on the privatisation of ETSA in the late 1990s. To some degree, SA Power Networks began its existence on my computer.
I’d just come off the SECV privatisation in Victoria. That was a bitter contested process. The ETSA people were much more constructive.
On my first visit to ETSA head office a bloke called James Bennett took me on a tour that I subsequently called ‘the Stobie poles of Keswick’.
Thanks for this trip down memory lane.
That's incredible!
Privatisation of State and Federal utilities like gas, electricity, water, telecom, Commonwealth Bank etc was a massive money grabbing mistake by Liberal Coalition governments.
6:45 Darwin brus
The segue to rooftop solar surplus energy reticulation was a vacuous storyline having nothing at all to do with poles. It was a bit of a fairy tale towards the end.
Stobie poles do jump into the path of vehicles. That's worth exploring.
Is a Darwin Stobie much, much bigger than the standard stobie? 🤦♂🤭
Stobie pole variants proliferate in French colonial Indochina, so they're probably poking out of the ground in France too. Was Mr Stobie a traveller?
Nearly 40yrs ago we had a rope swing in the playground at my primary school in the Adl hills. The ground was sloped toward a fence and road that formed the boundary of one of the sides of the playground. The road was lined with stobies and power lines. At around grade 6 or 7 we found we were big enough to be able to swing out far enough and actually stand on the closest power line before swinging back. Luckily we were too short and unable to reach or bridge to the next row of cable. Good times.
National Electricity Grid is a million km long and costs $1million per km because of congested streets and permanently energised wires.
If you can’t have what you like then you better like what you have.
There are also a lot of Stobie poles used to support lighting in country towns in SA, particularly bowling greens.
That's right! Customers can request floodlights or security lighting on our poles to enhance safety and security for all users.
Up there with eiffle tower
Great stuff but now South Australia needs to come out from under the cosy blanket and actually be more progressive, create meaningful jobs, meaning full manufacturing and cut actual red tape not just talk about it and then add more.
Shut up
From what I've heard, you still need to drop all the wind turbine reliance and get some serious reliable power supply.
@@OffGridInvestormost of South Australia's electricity is from household solar panels
@@OffGridInvestorwhat have you heard? Last I checked our power pricing was on the way down while other states are on the way up…
Plenty in NT and Tas. Stobie poles are dangerous if you are near them when a line faults to the crossarm and then the metal part of the pole to the ground.
Sensitive earth relay fixes that on the HV
Stobie pole art is the worst leave the gorgeous natural look and get that street graffiti of of it.
Our network is the most efficient?
You have backouts all the time....
and nobody ever thought anyone would run into them - causing so much death and injury, only in south au!
I don't think they are ugly. I've always for some reason appreciated lattice electricity pylons and power poles and n general. Electric overhead on railways . My autistic traits 🤪. It be expensive but any chance they could consider powder coating the metal ? Say try it on those poles that Only have a top set of 3 wires. Say trial a few poles that have those green disc insulators and powder coat the metal a similar lightish green. Look spectacular.
I went to south Oz and the rusty colour ruins the look. Take it from a 54 yr veteran of power pole porn
Well Done Stobie, they are Good Power Poles.
Also Well done NSW.
However SA Now has No Excuses and Must Grow some Irrigated Forestry.
Stobie poles are common in Darwin and the Northern Territory - but without the concrete filling. I well remember the Stobie poles on the Stuart Highway next to Darwin Airport on New Year’s Day 1975 - after Cyclone Tracy, they were bent over at 45 degrees, pointing away from Darwin towards the south-west, where my city of Palmerston now stands (think Canberra in the tropics, with 40,000 people - 25 kms or 30 mins south-west of Darwin). I flew-up then on a C-130 Hercules, as an Army Reserve Air Dispatcher (we trained in loading Hercs and Caribou’s for cargo parachute drops and normal flights). We were called-out in Melbourne on Boxing Day evening 1974 and loaded 71 Hercs on Darwin relief flights, 24/7 over the next 9 days - grabbing short night naps in our cars alongside the RAAF Laverton air-strip for the first 4 days, as Hercs from RAAF Richmond (near Sydney) could land at any time, needing loading and refuelling before a 6 hour flight to Darwin. Our main cargo was 2,500 equipment pallets - each comprising a petrol-powered generator, a petrol water pump and a gas BBQ stove. Drawn from camping shores in Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney - arriving on semi-trailers around the clock.They were allocated as one pallet per street, in Darwin’s wrecked suburbs - to allow the 9,000 men left behind, guarding their wrecked homes, to get together and have a shower, a hot meal and some electricity each evening - after their wives and kids (35,000 people) had joined evacuation flights or driven south in the family car (usually with a cracked windscreen). (Kym (74) in Darwin - my unit was 37 Air Dispatch Platoon, Army Reserve - from 1971 to 75). (PS The RAAF had 18 of its’ 22 Hercs on Cyclone Tracy Darwin Relief flights over Xmas - New Year in 74/75 - plus a Herc from New Zealand (RNXAF) and a USAF C-141 Starlifter from Hawaii. My unit - 37 AD - had only 14 of us, but we were helped from 27 Dec after I rang the Salvation Army for help - they sent 20 younger Corps-men, to help us prepare pallets for loading,) PPS 73 adults and kids were killed by Cyclone Tracy.
Well if they didn't have concrete, they weren't stobies.
The Darwin stobies have horizontal steel bars linking the left and right upright poles, to provide strength during our regular cyclones. Then, they might bend a bit - but they won’t fall down. Are SA’s stobies cyclone-proof ? (Kym in Darwin - where our different stobies rule).
if the stobie poles are so resillient why do we still get blackouts in "problem" areas, surely with enough statistics you would be able to fix these ongoing issues and with the rates being as high as they are you would be able to afford these remedies, please get back to me I would love to know what your side of the story is.
The power goes out due to trees interfering with the wires and shorting the system. The poles are rarely ever the problem.
Their only problem is they can rust at the base and topple over.
I've never seen one do that. Then again I haven't been everywhere.
Rusting to the point of failure would have to be rare. In environments where accelerated corrosion would be an identified risk a sacrificial anode or complete HDG would most likely be specified. Galvanized bolts would even do the trick. Stobie poles can be easily customised.
Dingo piss corrosion may be an issue.
@@walsakaluk1584 I have watched one fall as I was driving.Steel in contact with earth will rust .
@@amraceway no doubt.
My principal exposure to Stobie poles was in Ceduna. They weren't that old there and it was pretty dry most of the time. The old telegraph poles were rusted down to sidewall shredding stumps, but they weren't Stobie poles.
Locals frequently complained of Stobie poles trespassing into the path of their vehicles.
They are a handsome sturdy pole.
Never seen a pole fail by itself. Only collision by car, truck or heavy machinery vehicles...and even then the pole is mangled but still upright and doing its job.
But then maybe the one you seen was 100 years old? And if not in SA then it wasn't a Stobie pole.
Also most new ones have galvanised steel, these keep their metal colour and don't turn rusty reddish brown.
@@stevenbalekic5683 It was in the Adelaide suburb of Hawthorn. The pole was not replaced and was not hit by anything.
Only in South Australia could people extol the virtues of two pieces of rusty steel with dirty concrete in between. The constant need to declare how much better things in SA are than anywhere else speaks to insecurity, not excellence.
Sounds like a very insecure person throwing mud there… 🤔
Sure, that's true to a degree, but you're also blinded by cynicism. You can't see the streets for the stobies. People have respect for innovation, to appreciate those who are behind it and to share it with others. You should be proud of where you come from, too.
@@Beniah107 how many times when I lived in South Australia did people tell me that something was so much better than in the Eastern states? All the time. Seldom was that true.
@@PeterKelley let me get this straight - the Croweater's subjective proud view of thier homelands were contradictory to your subjective view, so they're all wrong? Aaaha. I see.
@@PeterKelley I don't imagine this is a uniquely South Australian phenomenon and really what is the relevance of what is a resentfull comment. This shows a problem, not just in what you observe in others, but in you, my friend.