2015

Sign of The Times

Issue date: 1 September 2015, Product withdrawal date: 31 March 2016

Neon signs are intensely coloured electric signs lighted by long, luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon tubes were first demonstrated in 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show, and were reportedly first used to advertise a barber’s shop. Neon signage and advertising subsequently became popular throughout the world. Today we are conscious of the heritage value of our historic neon signs.

The Skipping Girl, known as Little Audrey, possibly the country’s best known neon sign, was built by Neon Electric Signs and erected in 1936 in Victoria Street, Abbotsford, Victoria, as an animated advertisement for Skipping Girl Vinegar.

After World War II, Queensland’s Gold Coast became a popular destination for Australians. The Pink Poodle, built in 1967 on the corner of Fern Street and the Gold Coast Highway, Surfers Paradise, was a popular honeymoon motel. The motel was demolished in 2004 but the famous sign was saved, and now stands in Fern Street near its original location.

The jaunty Dandy Pig neon sign was first erected in the 1950s on the Princes Highway, Dandenong, Victoria, for the Gippsland Co-operative Bacon Curing Company. After closure of the factory in 1983, the much loved pig languished in storage before being restored and re-erected in 1993. The Dandy Pig was acknowledged by Greater Dandenong Council in 2013 for the sign’s social, cultural and historical significance to the community.