MORTLOCK SHIELD FOOTBALL CARNIVAL

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:29): I rise today to talk about a community event. It is a good news story and what I would like to talk about is an event that has become an institution on Eyre Peninsula: the annual Mortlock Shield Football Carnival.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Mr TRELOAR: It is obviously well known around the state. It is held in Port Lincoln every June long weekend. The first carnival was held way back in 1936, and it has been played continually now for some 75 years. In fact, my maternal grandfather played in that first carnival 75 years ago in 1936. The carnival was not held every year until after the war years but, as I said, it has become such an institution around the Eyre Peninsula that that particular weekend is not known by us as the Queen's Birthday holiday weekend or even the June long weekend, but rather it is known universally across the peninsula as the Mortlock Shield weekend or simply as Mortlock.

It is a competition where all the football leagues from across EP come together and compete for a shield that was donated originally by Mr W. Mortlock, a local identity and landowner. There has been expansion and consolidation of sporting clubs on Eyre Peninsula over the years as there has been right throughout regional South Australia. However, I can tell you that the teams and associations that competed in this year's carnival just two weeks ago were the leagues from Port Lincoln, Great Flinders, Eastern Eyre, Mid West and Far West. We were pleased to have along this year Kangaroo Island, who have been represented in the past and have rejoined the competition this year. They have made a commitment for another three years, so that is terrific.

Leagues that have come and gone in the past include Streaky Bay, Kimba, County Jervois, Le Hunte, Lincoln Districts, Lincoln City, Central Eyre and even, Madam Speaker, Whyalla had a representative team there for some time. There is no doubt that the success of the carnival is due to spectators coming from all over Eyre Peninsula. I understand that it is the longest-running carnival of its type in South Australia, and what it does is reflect the importance of sport generally, but football in particular, to country communities. Football generally goes hand-in-hand with netball throughout the countryside and results in an excellent family day out, often culminating with tea at the clubrooms.

The rapid rise in popularity of Australian Rules football has always intrigued me. From those early days in Victoria in the 1850s, we had league teams here in Adelaide by 1870, and invariably one of the first social events that the early settlers undertook was to form local football clubs. Many of our local clubs on Eyre Peninsula have already or are about to celebrate their centenary. Indeed, the football league that I have had close involvement with over the years, Great Flinders, is celebrating its centenary this year and we did so with a recent game against old rivals Port Lincoln at the Cummins Oval. Unfortunately for us, Lincoln won convincingly.

Interleague games on the Eyre Peninsula began way back in 1909 prior to the Mortlock Shield but it was a precursor, a forerunner, to the Mortlock Shield. A team from the district surrounding the Cummins township, which was in those days very much undergoing early settlement, ventured all the way to Lincoln on the train. They wore black and white and played two games against the Port Lincoln Football League.

They were known as the Mallee Whackers which you can take as you like, I guess, but in those days I understand it was in reference to the amount of time spent clearing the Mallee scrub to bring that land into production. Once again, I had a predecessor, an ancestor, playing in that team. In fact, my great-grandfather played in that team. They played two games against Port Lincoln, won both games and had a great weekend in the big smoke.

Many good footballers have come from Eyre Peninsula. Many have gone on to play VFL, South Australian National Football League and AFL and a lot of those had their first opportunity at the next level of the game playing in that Mortlock Shield weekend which is often well attended by spotters from the various league clubs and, without naming them all, we have had good representation over the years in football at the highest level. Congratulations to the Mortlock Shield on 75 years and we look forward to a long future ahead of us.