Gert by Sea

By Gertrude Glossip and Andrew Crooks

Dr Gertrude Glossip returns to take us on a coastal cruise through Rainbow History. The seaside suburbs are awash with history, and Gertrude is casting her Rainbow lens on Glenelg and Port Adelaide. These everchanging suburbs held key roles in the colonisation of South Australia, and their growth into booming modern suburbs shaped the establishm

• Language: English
• Publisher: Buon-Cattivi Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781922314109

Gertrude Glossip

Will Sergeant and Dr Gertrude Glossip are two sides of one coin. Will has been involved in gay activism since the 1970s. He participated the first Adelaide Pride March in 1973 and the first Sydney Mardi Gras in 1978. Gertrude, his alter-ego, was created in 1993. Both have been active participants in every Feast Festival in a variety of roles and performances. Gertrude's walks on history, art and zoo wild sex are now the 'stuff of legend'! Will has served on numerous Feast advisory committees and was named an ambassador for the 2018 Festival. In 2021, he was named South Australian Historian of the Year by the History Council of South Australia for his contribution to Adelaide Rainbow History. Dr Glossip's debut book, Queen of the Walk: Gertrude's Guide to Adelaide History, was released in 2021.

Book preview

Copyright © Will Sergeant (AKA ‘Dr Gertrude Glossip’), 2023

Published by the Buon-Cattivi Press, 2023

Adelaide, South Australia

All rights reserved.

ISBN (PAPERBACK): 978-1-922314-09-3

ISBN (EBOOK): 978-1-922314-10-9

This is a work of creative non-fiction. It contains true historic events but some creative adjustments have been made to protect identifying information, and to represent Dr Gertrude Glossip’s colourful character, nature and tone.

Editing by Cameron Rutherford

Book design and cover art by Andrew Crooks

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Glossary of Key Terms

Maps

Hello and Welcome

Hello Sailor: Queering the Port

Dock One

SS Gertrude

Missions to Seamen

Cruise Ships

Maritime Museum

Show Boats and Gawler Gert

The Australian Merchant Navy

The Royal Australian Navy – The ‘Real’ Navy

Vitalstatistix, Waterside Workers, and Bert Edwards

Life Blood Centre: Donate, but not if you are…

‘Passing’ and ‘St Paul’s-on-Piles’

Women’s Health Centres

The Freemasons, AFLW, UCA and Climax!

The Gay Bay: Nautical but Nice

Moseley Square

Colley Reserve: The Great Drag Race

St Peter’s and the Anglican Church of Australia

Sussex Street… without Zest

Trams, Pride Parades, St Andrews and UCA

Art Deco, The Olives, Our Lady of Victories, and MacDonnell Lodge

ECH, Charles Jury, College Street, and St John’s Row

Encounters, Parties, Mansions and Childhood Memories

Water Sports

Stop the Waves! Climax!

Coastal Rainbow Tales

Coastal Cruising

Semaphore and Seaside Feast

Tennyson (Estcourt) Beach

Going Down in the South

Flying the Rainbow Flag

Farewell, Until the Next Walk

Dedication

To the memory of the late Ian Purcell AM (1946 to 2016), my much-admired comrade and collaborator, whose inspiration created Gertrude Glossip thirty years ago.

Acknowledgements

There are numerous people and organisations to thank for Gert by Sea , my companion volume to Queen of the Walk . My publisher Dr Alex Dunkin for again encouraging the project and supporting me through the writing process. Ursula Menz and event managers for Lifesaving World Championship Adelaide 2018 for requesting and sponsoring the first Bay walk. Britt Burton and the History Trust of South Australia for requesting and sponsoring the second Bay Walk.

Courtney Barry, Assistant Curator Exhibitions and History, City of Holdfast Bay, for requesting and sponsoring the third Bay Walk. Cindy Crook, Local History Officer, City of Port Adelaide Enfield Libraries, for requesting and sponsoring the second Port walk. My late, great collaborator Ian Purcell AM who inspired, researched, and wrote much of the first Port walk.

Helen Bock for her marvellous ‘Lesbian Semaphore’ perspectives. Peter Burke for information and insights regarding the Anglican Church of Australia and our Rainbow community. Paul Marsh for information and insights regarding the Uniting Church of Australia and our rainbow community. I thank Dr Nikki Sullivan for her marvellous Q Role at ‘In conversation’ events celebrating my books. David and Cameron for their Zest story. Thanks to Paul Paech for the water sports photograph and Kenton Miller for the original Gertrude maps and cartoons.

Numerous gay comrades for their gay seaside stories and perspectives. Feast Festival and South Australia’s History Festival for providing the platform for the walks. Feast programs for invaluable seaside material.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, my Gertrude Groupies, old and new, who have faithfully followed me on these walks.

Glossary of Key Terms

Beat: An Australian term referring to a public space where homosexual men knew they could meet, socialise, and possibly (or hopefully) have sexual encounters.

Camp: A term used prior to gay, particularly amongst homosexual men, to describe themselves and each other, and tying into the theatrical and flamboyant stereotype of a homosexual man.

Expelaloo: A modern, excremental automated toilet that replaced older, functional public lavatories. Gertrude calls these ‘expelaloos’ because an automated voice informs that doors will automatically open after a short period of time. And they don’t have discreet entries as old-fashioned lavatories often did, but open directly onto public thoroughfares so that one can literally be ‘caught with one’s pants down’ if one lingers too long!

Feast Festival: Adelaide’s LGBTIQA+ Queer Arts and Cultural Festival held annually since 1997.

Gay: A term used to describe gay men (initially for both men and women), arriving in the 1970s with Gay Liberation. Replaced the term camp.

Homosexual: Same-sex attracted person, historically most commonly used for and amongst same-sex attracted men.

Lesbian: A term reclaimed by radical lesbians in the 1970s and 1980s to differentiate themselves from the term ‘gay’. Gay then became the term used by homosexual men; thus the L and G in modern acronym LGBTIQA+

LGBTIQA+: Inclusive acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, and allies.

Out: A queer person who is open and public about their individual LGBTIQA+ identity.

Outing: The act of openly and publicly declaring one’s LGBTIQA+ status. This can be an individual’s choice. It can also be the act performed by others on persons who are discreet and private about their LGBTIQA+ identity.

Queer: A formerly derogatory term for same-sex attracted people that has since been reclaimed as an affirmative, inclusive term.

Rainbow: Umbrella term and internationally recognised symbol for the queer community.

Rainbow History Lovers: Gertrude sees this as the most encompassing term to describe the various members of the rainbow community and allies; always said in an inclusive and affirming manner.

Port Adelaide Map

Glenelg Map

Gertrude inspects water activities by the jetty.

Hello and Welcome

Naa marni, Rainbow History Lovers. That’s ‘Hello, how are you?’ in the Kaurna language. The Kaurna people are the traditional owners of the land on which our stories take place and on which this book has been produced.

For those who do not know me, let me introduce myself. I am Dr Gertrude Glossip PhD (Formal Drapery) Curtain University, the alter ego of gay activist Will Sergeant OAM. As befits my title my mottos are: decorate while you educate, paint the lily, and add another hue unto the Rainbow. My particular area of interest, and expertise, is Adelaide Rainbow History as manifested in my Rainbow History Walks and my first tome Queen of the Walk: Gertrude’s Guide to Gay Adelaide History. I was created in 1993 for the Uranian Society, Adelaide’s cultural forum for gay men, to lead a history walk. Thus, I celebrate my thirtieth, pearl anniversary, this year. I shall truly be a Pearly Queen! So, it is fitting to celebrate my pearl anniversary by publishing my seaside history walks in book form.

It is lovely to have you all along on my seaside adventure stories, titled so obviously, and appropriately, Gert by Sea. Of course, I am going to be devastated if, and perhaps when, the immortal line ‘our home is girt by sea’ is removed from our national anthem! Like my good self, I think there’s something rather quaint and old-fashioned about the term ‘girt’!

Now, those who have read my first tome will know it focuses on Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide, as have most of my Feast Festival History Walks. I have conducted history walks at every Feast since its inauguration as the Adelaide Lesbian & Gay Cultural Festival in 1997. As am I, Feast is a jewel in our Rainbow communities’ crown.

For Feast 2005, our dear friend and collaborator the late Ian Purcell AM, together with my manager Will, decided I should conduct a ‘Port Walk’. We were delighted to discover the