Oakbank Weaver: In the Old Pikes Brewery, at Oakbank, in the Adelaide Hills Region of South Australia

Founded in 1840 by James Johnston of Scotland, Oakbank in the Adelaide Hills was named after an area near Glasgow. In the early days the spring water which flowed beneath the town was noted for its purity and soon the town had not one but two breweries.

From the late 1880s this grand old building was churning out kegs of Pikes finest "fish beer" as it was known locally thanks to Henry Pike, a one-time undertaker who later sold his hearse for the more lucrative beer truck. Mary Cassini explains:

“The first fifty six gallons of beer was very popular so shortly after that he tapped into the town water supply which was a spring under the town which the other brewery used. He built a very splendid Victorian tower with a fish on the top - which is the trademark - the Pike Fish. He set up business as a brewery.”

Pike's Brewery won numerous prizes for its stout and beer but in the late 30s a virus known as "fox" was discovered in the brewing yeast. Peter Stapleton:

“So they stopped brewing there and went across to soft drinks. They had lots of hotels and they managed to brew a very famous tonic ale which was sold all over the hills and in Adelaide. A lot of famous people drank it, like the founder of the Temperance Society in South Australia. We've heard she drank nothing else because it gave her a ‘little lift’. One of the people who worked here told us later that sometimes it was eight percent alcohol. The fermentation would just get away from them. It was sold in the local tuck shop at school too.”

Now where old Henry once brewed his beer, Peter Stapleton has great fun spinning yarns. The loom and the weaver become one as Peter produces a range of clothing, rugs, bedspreads and scarves and throughout the process the old Pike soft drink bottles offer the perfect counterbalance.

Nearby Mary Cassini, one of South Australia's best known peace activists adds to her latest tapestry which recounts a key moment in her life - when as a little girl in Canterbury England in 1942 a German fighter bomber strafed her courtyard:

“Why did he want to kill me? I could never understand it. Ever since then I guess I've had that in the back of my mind. What had I done that this strange man would come out of the sky? I saw his eyes behind his goggles and he was aiming at me to kill me… and I guess my whole life since then has been wondering why people want to kill people when they don't even know them."

In the tapestry she recounts a peace vigil in Victoria Square in the shadow of the GPO clock. Since then Mary has been instrumental in organising regular three-minutes-silence-for peace-vigils around the world. The old Soviet newspaper Pravda thought fit to promote Mary's peace initiative in the dying days of Mikhail Gorbachev's rule.

Now her attention has turned to tensions in the Middle East with tapestries like "The Healing of the Nations" with the various churches, mosques and synagogues - symbolising a peace between nations.

“It's a unifying picture for the world.” Mary says.

And nearby, a lasting message for the world in troubled times - just one of the many tapestries on display at The Oakbank Weaver located in the Old Pike's Brewery in Elizabeth Street, Oakbank. If you any any further questions please email info@postcards.sa.com.au