LEGOE FAMILY

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (12:27): I rise to support this motion, and obviously we are here to acknowledge and recognise the Legoe family in particular for their generous donation. I also wish to recognise this part of the world by the first inhabitants, that is the Ngarrindjeri people. They, of course, have had a very sad history in South Australia, and they were very active in developing this region, and indeed after the establishment of missionaries in South Australia were very active in farming in this area around the Coorong and significantly advanced, I think relative to other regions. So I particularly want to acknowledge the history that goes with this region. It is all the more fitting, I think, that the Legoe family dedicate this commissioned gift to Colin Thiele AC.

I consider myself privileged firstly to have had the opportunity to meet Colin Thiele during his lifetime. That was largely arising out of my grandmother having a bookshop in which she sold a lot of Australian children's books—she had even in more recent years, until her retirement at age 92, sold the Deputy Speaker's mother's books—and also featured great South Australian writers such as Christobel Mattingley—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would just like to say thank you for helping my mother pay off the mortgage; it is very kind of you.

Ms CHAPMAN: Secondly, Colin Thiele provided an enormous number of books for children, and I am privileged to have read many of them as a child. A great history of South Australia is encapsulated in those books. Just a few, which have been set in this region, have been recognised, such as Storm Boy, which became a very famous South Australian film. I can mention others such as February Dragon, which relates the brutal effects of bushfire. It is a very powerful book for any child to read about the South Australian and Australian landscape generally and the ravages of bushfire. Another book that I recall is Sun on the Stubble. Other speakers have mentioned it; it is well known.

During a visit to Germany, which I attended for the Berlin elections after the wall dividing Berlin fell in 1989, I had the opportunity to attend ZDF, which is a significant television and film production entity in Germany. It is so large in area alone that when you enter the facility you have to show your passport, and you are shown to certain regions along certain streets to get to the production area. The reason I attended was to view the first cut of the film Sun on the Stubble, which was made with the German equivalent to Mel Gibson at the time (I cannot remember his name). He featured in the production of this film, and much of the filming took place in South Australia in our own Barossa Valley.

The extent of the work of Colin Thiele in terms of both literature and the education of children in this state and, indeed, across the country—to some degree recognised internationally—is meritorious on its own. For the Legoe family to have recognised him in this way I think is a great tribute to them. On behalf of South Australians, I think that we owe them a great debt and I thank them sincerely.

Motion carried.