“The Arab and the Summer of ’56”
Part Three — The Wild Colonial

In the last two weekly editions of the Surf Coast Times, I introduced the readers of the Committee for Lorne Page to Parts One and Two of a three-part series reviving the memory of two legendary Lorne institutions of the late 50s, the incomparable 60s, and early 70s… The Arab and The Wild Colonial Club.

The three articles in the series have been drawn from “The Arab and the Summer of ’56: An exercise in myth-making” which was first published in The National Times [15.02,1981]. The author of this insightful article is Kristin Williamson, married to Australian playwright, David Williamson.

I apologise to those who have missed the first two parts, though they will still be available on the Surf Coast Times website – https://tinyurl.com/bdcx9rfy.

For those who are already into the story, read on …

“The Arab and the Summer of ’56”
Part Three – The Wild Colonial

When the Smith brothers had made enough money out of The Arab, they poured it into the Wild Colonial—a great barn of a place on the beachfront that was once the town’s ‘talking pictures’ theatre. Inside, they built a “Gone with the Wind” staircase.

“Graham measured treads all over Paris until we got perfection,” said
Alistair. “We knew that when the girls walked down, they would feel good, and then the boys would follow.”

Behind the staircase was a jungle gym scaffold, cast iron with a gold background. Like a skeleton of the convict past, it was hung with rusty chains, shackles and machinery—a giant theatre with spot-lit platforms.

“We put in a long-haired group with electric guitars called the Spinning Wheels. They performed as well as played,” said Alistair. “People just danced themselves to pieces.”

The Smiths let the Wild Colonial look like it was in opposition to The Arab, but they knew that pretty soon people would be wearing a track three feet deep between the two places, and they were right.

On the back of The Arab menu, Graham composed some “beat” lines on dreaming up a yellow Wild Colonial Club while dancing in Paris.

“This was revolution, and Madame Guillotine was kissing the
back of my neck, the Pareejuenes kept up their Cancan, and the garçon supplied the French word for yellow. We were going colonial, and I was in pain … that was remembering and great-grandfathers and ancestor worship. ‘Mother, when can I have a ball and chain like yours?’ We were sieving the past like panning for gold and deciding how dead was Ned.”

It sounds pseudo, even twee today, but in 1960 it was an effective way of introducing an extraordinary new idea—to start a disco that celebrated our convict past.

Later came The Abominable, a licensed restaurant in the snowfields at Mt Buller. Some of the best bands in the country played there, but like The Arab, the real floor show was the staff.

What kept the Smith brothers going at such a pace for almost 20 years? What kept their spirits high?

“It was definitely an ego trip,” said Alistair. “We thought we were important. It wasn’t till later that we found out we weren’t. It sounds corny now, but we believed in what we were doing, and so did the customers. They helped us. Some of them were really lovable. One old man used to hitchhike 60 miles every night just to sit there and be part of The Arab.

Steve Politis owns The Arab now. He came to work there 15 years ago and didn’t like it. “I was a city boy, a real Greek guy with my hair slicked up, you know, with grease, and I wore a bow tie. I had to work three times as hard at The Arab, but the atmosphere was so good, so easy go, I didn’t mind. After three weeks, you couldn’t push me out with a bomb.”

Jim Vasilopoulos is back working there, too. He started as a dishwasher in 1959. His eyes light up when he describes the old days.

“If Robin told me, ‘I can’t pay you,’ I would work for nothing, unlike now. Then it was a big thing to work here. I came back and was a bit disappointed, but you always want to keep in touch with a place you love … that back part, in the tent with blue and white stripes. When the sun was shining, it was so beautiful. Like a picture.”

It was time to change. The demand for just coffee and spaghetti was over. Now, the Arab has a BYO licence and serves veal cordon bleu and oysters kilpatrick. The music is disco, there are vinyl chairs and high square tables, and the waitresses are quite normal. It is still very friendly, but the magic is gone.

Sitting outside in the sun last week, I met one of the graziers’ sons who went to The Arab 20 years ago. He was 42, quite grey, and had his own teenage daughters. “I met my wife on the cushions at the back of The Arab,” he said.

I should have guessed he was out of the past because he was nostalgically eating toasted ham sandwiches with tomato juice.

“I bring my kids here, bore them with stories about how this place was.” He admitted he’d thrown a rock at the chemist’s window next door to The Arab on New Year’s Eve. But that was traditional.

“There was a whole generation that believed in the myth of The Arab,” he said. “It punctuated everything that happened at Lorne. When the projector broke down in the picture theatre, everyone would chant ‘Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti,’ just the way they wrote it on The Arab menu. Remember?

“And when it hailed and thundered just as the crowd was getting out of the pictures, there’d be ‘The Arab taxi,’ two waiters in tea towels with umbrellas to run you a couple of hundred yards to The Arab,” I’d forgotten.

“If you turned most of the kids in Lorne upside down and shook them in 1962, you’d only find a shilling or two, but you could be sure The Arab would get it,” he said with a sad smile.

What happened to the Smith brothers’ dream? Time just caught up with it. Twenty years ago, they introduced the style Australians were hungry for. What they created looked experimental and bold. They had the insight to realise what was important in its time, but ephemeral. So, they got out. They didn’t retire rich. In fact, none of them owns anything at all.

“There was a point where money became too important,” said Robin. “So that was the end of it.”

Alistair lives in Carlton and runs factory workshops for school kids “not good at blackboard work”, who, without such skills, mostly end up in jail.

Graham decorates apartments for rich people in New York.

And Robin? … at the time of writing [1981], Robin is back in Lorne, working temporarily as a hotel cook.

Article by Kristin Williamson
Edited by John Agar

Postscript
I hope my boomer compatriots will have enjoyed reliving these old memories. I certainly have. I also thank the Lorne Historical Society for allowing me access to Malcolm and Jean Graham’s LHS Newsfiles, without which these articles could not have been written. JA

 

A word from the chairman

Hello
Winter has arrived with a vengeance and, while it has brought some much-needed rain to our farmers, it somewhat dampened our spirits for the long weekend in Lorne. Unfortunately, the foreshore market had to be cancelled due to safety reasons and our netballers, footballers and volunteers had to cope with wind, rain and single digit temperatures. Despite the conditions, a good crowd turned up to watch the competition, although most were huddled in or under the pavilions, with a cup or glass of something in hand.
Once again on Sunday, the weather made life difficult for the Aquatic Club’s fishing competition with conditions unsuitable for boat fishing. That did not stop approximately 40 hardy souls from fishing off the pier, with some good results and some handy prizes won. The roast lunch at the Club afterwards was much appreciated.
On Sunday night the World Sausage Roll competition was judged at the Aquatic Club, and again, despite the inclement weather, people came in huge numbers to share this fun event. With prizes for the biggest, the smallest, the funniest and the best tasting, the judges had to work their way through 29 entries to select the winners. With entrants required to bake extra samples for the crowd, there were over a thousand sausage rolls cooked for the occasion and these were much appreciated by those in attendance. Once again the Club cemented itself as the community hub of Lorne.
******
During the last couple of weeks, GORCAPA has been conducting community engagement sessions about the draft Urban Design Framework (UDF) for the Point Grey precinct redevelopment with community groups and the public. These sessions were intended to inform interested people in preparation for completing the survey regarding the draft UDF. The number of people who have taken the time to attend these sessions is strong evidence of the depth of feeling our community has for this special place, and our commitment to ensuring that the finished result for the precinct is one that is functional for locals and visitors alike, honours the precinct’s history of tourism, timber and fishing in a respectful and considered way, and that we are proud to have contributed to. Those who attended the sessions made it very clear that they do not support the UDF as it is currently drafted and that they want to see significant changes to a number of sections of the draft document. Community consultation and the survey are open until June 22. I urge you to express your views.
It is hard to believe that it is now 2 years since we had a very well-attended and vocal community meeting regarding the future of the pool, trampolines and foreshore precinct. The future of this important site remains shrouded in secrecy with (apparently) no decision made regarding a lease extension or conditions attaching thereto. The Committee for Lorne will continue to seek answers to important questions regarding this significant community asset. Stay tuned!
Cheers (and stay warm)

Lorne Ward Events Calendar

June

21 – Lorne Dolphins Football and Netball V Birregurra, at Stribling Reserve, juniors match from 8:45am, seniors at 2pm

July

6 – LAAC Winter Comp No 2. lines down after 6am, weigh in at the Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club at 12:30 followed by BBQ lunch.

19 – Lorne Dolphins Football and Netball V Otway Districts at Stribling Reserve, juniors match from 8:45am, seniors at 2pm