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189A revelation for those who were prone to overfilling the pool, worried about wasting water or who didn%u2019t want the rhododendrons to wash away, these little green units started popping up on taps around the country like weeds. Lawns and the Australian Dream go together like%u00a0 stamp duty and mortgage repayments. Standing around with the hose, watering the driveway, running under the sprinkler as kids, or making a half-arsed attempt to wash the car are all part of the traditional suburban experience %u2013 or at least they were back in the olden days, before we knew about things like water restrictions and drought. Ads for hoses, nozzles and sprinklers filled our TV screens during those long summers of endless games of cricket. In the early 1980s, South Australian manufacturer Sabco added to those products with a nifty timer that attached to%u00a0the hose via the tap. A revelation for those who were prone to overfilling the pool, worried about wasting water or who didn%u2019t want the rhododendrons to wash away, these little green units started popping up on taps around the country like weeds. With water restrictions becoming commonplace (giving rise to the memorable 1984 %u2018Don%u2019t Be a Wally with Water%u2019 campaign), water-saving devices became all the rage and the Timer Tap, designed in-house by the Sabco team, commanded some valuable shelf space at the local hardware store.Sales were buoyed by a television campaign that featured %u2018George%u2019, a middle-aged creep who,%u00a0under the premise of watering his garden, took the opportunity to peek at his next-door neighbour, who was lying on a banana lounge in her bikini, oblivious to his leering glances. His wife, however, was definitely aware of his pervy ways. She confronted him and, startled, he%u00a0 accidentally sprayed her with the hose. Revenge and a solution arrived in the form of his wife%u2019s brand new Sabco timer. His hose went limp, ruining his peeping Tom ways. Weren%u2019t the 1980s amazing? Dodgy ads aside, the timer was a commercial success and also a hit with the design community; it won a Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design in 1981. If only the clever folk at Sabco%u00a0 could have found a solution to the mysteriously self-shortening hoses that were also a fixture of suburbia %u2026YEAR 1981DESIGNER & MANUFACTURER Sabco