Lumen Waite 100 - Flipbook - Page 11
Very old sweet white
There’s a little bit of heritage in every bottle of the University’s Rare
Liqueur Sweet White (a sherry-like tipple we can’t legally call sherry).
The fortified wine is aged using a fractional-blending technique known as
solera, where new vintages are blended into a long-standing original batch.
This means some of the fortified produced and barrelled at Roseworthy
Agricultural College prior to the University of Adelaide amalgamation in
the ’90s is still present in this year’s bottle release. Taste the history.
Old lab
Tucked away in the Waite
family’s old Coach House
is this historic gem. Recreated from photos taken
in the 1920s and 1930s, it
is a fabulous approximation
of what our first science
laboratory was like. We’ve
come a long way, but some
of the equipment could still
have a place in modern labs.
An artful ceiling
Some of the ceilings in Urrbrae
House (and nowhere else in Australia)
are papered with the work of famed
English interior designer J. Aldam
Heaton. A member of the 19th
century neo-classical Arts and Crafts
movement, Heaton’s designs were also
(posthumously) used in prestigious
commissions including aboard the
doomed ship Titanic. The house’s
grand Main Hall features stylised
images of animals and nature.
Big, big billiard table
Weighing in at more than a tonne, the
full size ‘Squatter’s Favourite’ billiard table,
manufactured by Alcock and Co. (c.1892), was
the centrepiece of the smoking room in Urrbrae
House. It kept many a group of (mostly) men
entertained after an evening dinner. The table
is skirted on two sides by a raised lounge,
allowing resting players a full view of their
competitors’ shots. Famed Australian landscape
painter Sir Arthur Streeton spent an enjoyable
evening in 1895 playing at the table and
discussing art with Peter Waite into the early
hours. In later years, a rowdier element was
allowed access to the table for a time – students.
LUMEN
