Stobie poles to the rescue at the SA Inventors Escape Room
For History Festival this month, the SA Inventors Escape Room shines a spotlight on South Australian inventions still used around the world.
Did you know that modern sunscreen and non-scratch glasses were invented by South Australians?
Gigi Pinwill bets you didn’t.
As creative director of the Escapeneers, she has created educational escape rooms that highlight the minds of South Australian inventors and thinkers. These escape rooms have been inspired by real local inventions, like Stobie poles and Hills Hoist.
“We’ve got actual pieces of Stobie pole and a Hills Hoist mechanism,” Gigi says.
The idea to create the SA Inventors Escape Room came after a visit to the pub with fellow code-loving colleagues who would often do escape rooms after work to let off some steam.
“I’ve done five escape rooms in a day,” Gigi says.
The “delusionally overconfident” idea was formed in the winter of 2023. With funding from the Adelaide Fringe, the festival’s deadline meant the Escapeneers’ crew had less than a year to bring it all together.
“Everyone told us it takes a year to two years to make an escape room,” Gigi says. “It was scary, but we pulled it off.”
The installation was a success in Gluttony, drawing in “over 1000 people” across its stint at the 2024 Fringe.
Now a part of the SA History Festival, the SA Inventors Escape Room shines a spotlight on South Australia’s greatest minds.
“We’ve been passionate for a long time about Australians being more aware of just how inventive we are as a nation,” says Gigi.
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Designing an escape room isn’t easy. The theme must be “something that has the ability to be codified”.
She also needed to consider a space that functions as an educational tool as well as an entertaining, immersive experience.
The escape room follows a dystopian storyline, with participants thrown into the future where the world is in trouble, having lost some of its greatest SA inventions.
“Luckily, we have a time machine,” Gigi says.
“We’re sending people back in time to recover these lost inventions so that the world can still benefit from them.”
The Inventors Escape Room is wheelchair accessible, with audio descriptions available to help patrons understand what’s happening and “help them crack the codes” Gigi says.
The event runs from 10am until 10pm, Wednesday to Sunday, throughout May at the Escapeneers on Solomon Street in Adelaide’s CBD.
Bookings can be made through the Escapeneers website, with tickets ranging from $20 to $40.
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