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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-07-26 Daily Xml
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Light Electorate

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (15:40): I would like to take this opportunity to raise in this house matters of interest in my electorate. On the weekend, on Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend an event at the Gawler National Trust Museum in the main street of Gawler. The Gawler National Trust Museum organised a reunion of the Timer Fashions factory. For members of the house, Timer Fashions was a factory in the main street of Gawler which closed in the mid-seventies. At one stage, not only was it one of the biggest businesses to operating Gawler but it was one of the biggest clothing manufacturers in Australia.

Over 80 women attended the reunion on Saturday at the museum in Gawler. I say 'women' because the factory employed mainly women. I think at any one time there might have been six men employed in various maintenance roles. I also understand that some of the cutting roles in the factory required, as it was said on Saturday, people who were tall and perhaps a bit stronger.

According to a local trust member, who has undertaken a history of Timer Fashions, Ms Marilyn Tucker, Timer Fashions had its origins in a small business started by Joe Jacobs in the 1920s. He was of Middle Eastern background and a migrant to the area. Ms Tucker said that Mr Jacobs set up the business in Murray Street, where he employed untrained women to do simple machine sewing. I understand from the talk that they made nursery squares, which we refer to as nappies, and they also made aprons and pyjamas and, with training, workers progressed to making dresses and skirts.

The business continued during the hard times of the Depression. With the start of World War II, manufacturers were required to make military uniforms. Despite the war, the government implemented a decentralisation policy, so the company continued throughout the war. The Myer Emporium approached Joe to set up a clothing factory in Gawler with a view to an exclusive deal for children's clothing.

The business was very profitable and, as a result, the company grew from 20 to 60 machinists within three years and kept growing. The company was established as the Gawler Manufacturing Company Limited and later changed to Timer Fashions. The business flourished, and garments were made to cover all ages under the Timer brand: Day Timer, School Timer and Sports Timer. Whilst the origins of the business are not known, because of its success a name change took place.

During the fifties, an extension was built for the factory. At this point, it employed about 300 people and used half a million yards of imported fabric a year, representing about 250,000 garments made. The company continued to grow. In 1970, Joe retired from the business, where his wife also worked, and his son Keith, who still lives in the town, took over the company. The plant was eventually sold during the seventies because of the changes to tariff laws, etc., and the increasing importation of fabrics and clothing. The factory gave women a lot of opportunities for employment in the local area.

I would like to thank the Gawler National Trust Museum for organising this very important event, and women came from right across the state. You just had to hear some of the stories and reminiscences of days gone by. Interestingly, I met one of the ladies, an Italian migrant who had worked for 23 years in the factory, a factory that provided a lot of valuable work for many women in the area.

With the bit of time I have left, I would like to congratulate Café Sia, which is a café based in Gawler or Evanston. Café Sia won the prestigious Café of the Year Award at this year's South Australia's Restaurant & Catering Hostplus Awards for Excellence, trumping its many city-based rivals. As I said in the media release I put out after their success, we have just proven that anything the city can do Gawler can do better. That also goes to prove that we remain the best of town and country in Gawler.

I would like to congratulate co-owners Gaby and Danny Haidar, who run the business with their partners. As they point out, it is a fusion of both Middle Eastern and Italian cuisine with them being from a Lebanese background and their wives being from an Italian background. Congratulations to them.

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