The Semaphore Workers Club

Welcome comrades to the Semaphore Workers Club, now a beachside bastion of the Labor movement. Once it was the meeting place for bosses and shipping agents when Port Adelaide was a bustling commercial centre. Back then the billiard table was the centre of the social scene as wealthy merchants kept an eye out for passing trade. Now its union organisers and workers who call in for a quick round of the table. At the turn of the century this place with its pressed metal ceiling and leather-bound benches was home to the local Yacht Squadron and later the exclusive Semaphore Club. "That was the consolidation of the upper crust because it comprised of shipping agents, bankers, judges, employers of waterside labour and timber merchants." "So it was like the Adelaide club of Semaphore?" "Yer the headquarters because in those days it was a busy port, lot of commerce and yes a lot of business deals were done here." But in a bloodless and democratic revolution that Marx and later followers would have been proud of, the workers assumed control of the club in its dying days in the mid eighties. Now they've breathed new life into a community centre which has long been a focal point of the Semaphore scene. "It's a social club, a meeting place for all sorts of organisations, womans groups, Aborigine groups, Trade Unionists, political parties of the left of course."

It houses one of the most comprehensive collections of Trade Union memorabilia in the State and when the workers of the world unite at Semaphore, they do so behind the old Trades Hall Bar trucked in specially form South Terrace. And if chewing the revolutionary fat over an ale is not your scene then retire to the reading room for a quick browse through the complete works of Vladimir Illyich Lennin. Then again do what Ben does every Friday night. "We let our hair down then and we have blues bands and we have a ball yer." Semaphore band, Blue Matter, had the locals jumping when we sampled the Blues and chipping in were original Cold Chisel Blues Harp player Dave Blight and James Meston a former backing guitarist for the legendary Eric Clapton. The Semaphore Workers Club is open Friday nights for Blues performances. The bands usually kick of at about 9pm. Admission is $3.

For more information you can email info@postcards.sa.com.au