tomstringer/The-University-of-Melbourne-Web-Templates-MySourceMatrix-Theme — comment on commit b890d5264a07e972835fbcca2089ff0db544c726
File:  line 0
By tomstringer:

Having the sidebar elements embedded in the menu design area meant that if you turned the menu off, you couldn't display the sidebar elements.

This commit allows the side_bar_before and side_bar_after areas to be printed separately from the menu. Useful if you don't want the menu to show, but you DO want sidebar elements.