Cowley's pie cart was a late-night eatery which operated in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

outside the

General Post Office, Adelaide General Post Office, a colonial-era building situated on 141 King William Street on the north-west corner of King William Street and Victoria Square, is the former General Post Office for South Australia, Australia, Postal services operated fr ...

on Franklin Street close to Victoria Square.

History

Adelaide's pie carts consisted of a large self-contained enclosed trailer with a single awning servery opening to the footpath. There was no seating supplied, the range of food available (apart from pies and pasties) was very limited, and the only drinks available were tea, coffee and a small range of soft drinks. A notable characteristic of Adelaide's pie carts was their democratic nature: every class of person could be seen at the counter. Cowley's pie cart was opened by William "Bill" Cowley, owner of Cowleys Bakeries, of Cross Road,

Glandore Glandore (, meaning ''harbour of the oak trees'') is the name of both a harbour and village in County Cork, Ireland. Glandore is located about an hour's drive south-west of Cork city. The village has several pubs, with traditional music. It i ...

, in 1937. Wonder World! television interview by

Tony Johnston Tony Johnston (born 9 April 1970) is an Australian television presenter, producer and radio broadcaster. Tony began his career in 1986, as a presenter on the music video show ''Saturday Jukebox'' on the Seven Network in Australia. In 1987, he ...

recorded 21 June 1994 and broadcast in July 1994. :Bill was a nephew of Joseph Cowley, one of Sturt's 1845 expedition party; a grandmother, Rebecca Bevis, migrated to South Australia in 1838 on the same ship (

Pestonjee Bomanjee The ''Pestonjee Bomanjee'' was a wooden sailing ship built in 1834 by James Lang of Dumbarton, Scotland. She was a three-masted wooden barque of 595 tons, 130 feet in length, 31.5 feet in breadth, first owned by John Miller Jnr and Company, Glas ...

) as

Governor Gawler Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler, KH, (21 July 1795 – 7 May 1869) was the second Governor of South Australia, at the same time serving as Resident Commissioner, from 17 October 1838 until 15 May 1841. Biography Early life Gawler, born on 21 ...

. She married Thomas Cowley, one of those closely involved with John Ridley's invention of the

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...

. A specialty of Cowley's pie cart was the "

pie floater The pie floater is an Australian dish particularly common in Adelaide. It consists of a meat pie in a thick pea soup, typically with the addition of tomato sauce. Believed to have been first created in the 1890s, the pie floater gained populari ...

"; a meat pie upside-down on a plate, surrounded by a generous serving of thick pea soup (made from blue boiler peas),"Blue boiler peas" are whole dried green field peas, not carlin peas, maple peas or black peas, as are used for "mushy peas" in England. and frequently topped with tomato sauce. The last owner/operators of this pie cart were Ray Purvis and his family, who had a licence to operate it from 5 pm (when the post office closed), until around midnight, being then one of the few food outlets open in Adelaide after 9 pm. A special mention that Bill Cowley actually invented the Square pie that Balfours actually use to this day.

References

{{Reflist History of Adelaide 1937 establishments in Australia

History

See also

References