NATIONAL PARKS

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (16:16): Like many other mostly rural members in this place, I have considerable numbers of national parks, conservation areas and wilderness protection areas—probably more of them than anyone else actually—in my electorate. National parks such as Deep Creek on the Fleurieu, Mount Billy to the west of Victor Harbor and the Bluff itself in Victor Harbor all come under the jurisdiction of national parks and are interesting and absorbing places. Deep Creek has its fair share of visitors, and it is not all that uncommon for the news of the day to talk about someone lost in Deep Creek or, from time to time, the odd fire down there.

However, last Thursday I was on Kangaroo Island visiting some national parks over there—a third of the island is national parks—and, unlike the Fleurieu parks which, like Deep Creek, raise a small but not considerable amount of income, the parks on Kangaroo Island actually raise enormous amounts of income. They are multimillion dollar exercises for the Department for Environment and Heritage. I like to have a look around occasionally and just see how they are all going.

After the disastrous fires of December 2007, I paid a visit the next year to the west end of Flinders Chase in particular and around some of the other areas to have a look at the damage and what was going to be required to get them back into operation. Fortunately, a lot of the major assets were untouched. There were areas that were severely damaged. Places like the toilets at Snake Lagoon and the Platypus Walk all suffered fairly major damage. You have to remember that the entire park at Flinders Chase got burnt out.

I might come to that in a minute; however, last Thursday I went back and the Regional Manager for the department on Kangaroo Island, Mr Bill Haddrill, kindly gave me a tour of the park, the facilities and many of the sites that visitors take for granted. To think that a couple of years ago it was a blackened mess and to see it now is absolutely amazing to people who do not understand how the bush regenerates.

The only thing that I would say is that our stupidity as land managers in the past has resulted in the entire park being burnt out in one hit, rather than sections of it at one time. The whole place is regenerating quickly and, if we do not get our act into gear and burn out parts, in six or seven years we will be burning out the whole lot again.

I believe that Mr Haddrill is an outstanding manager and that, with the formation of DENA taking over from DEH, he would be ideally suited to managing the whole island's natural resources and national parks, in my view. I hope he gets that chance, because he is very much into the community. He knows the community and listens to it—which a lot of them do not do—and is actively involved. I thank Mr Haddrill for that. I also thank the manager, Mr Mike Penhall, the regional ranger in charge at Flinders Chase, and his staff; and Mick Murphy, the maintenance boss, and his staff. Mick is a bit of a character and gets around the traps a fair bit and is also involved.

What they have done down there has been fantastic to see. They have resurrected the public infrastructure, the road system and places such as the toilets and the camp grounds. They are still looking at what they are going to do with the platypus walk. Some of that is opened up but there is still a way to go.

The first impression when you visit a tourist destination is a lasting impression, and I have to say that the first impression when you go into those places now—whether it be Snake Lagoon, the Chase, the camp grounds or even out on the roads—is one of freshness, and it is attractive. All the infrastructure looks good, so I pay tribute to those who have seen fit to get it back into full operation. It is a pity some of it took so long, but they are starved of funds. They run on a shoestring budget and do what they can whenever they can.

We drove out to Cape Du Couedic to look at the infrastructure that has now been there for around eight or nine years, and right down the bottom it is starting to show fairly severe signs of wear and tear from the effects of the elements down there, which are extreme, to say the least. There were pretty big storms and winds over the preceding few days and when we went out there were a few tree limbs and bits and pieces over the road. By the time we came back—and it is an hour and a half to go out there and come back—Mick Murphy had been out with his loader and pushed them all off and you would not know he had been there. They take great pride in that national park.

So, in the time left to me, I want to ensure that members across the broad spectrum in the chamber know that everything is up and running again. It is a great place to visit. The infrastructure looks fantastic, and it is well managed. They also employ a lot of people. I will be the first to criticise when things go wrong but in this case they have done a good job.

Time expired.