COUNTRY AMBULANCE STATIONS

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:35): I am talking about country ambulance stations today, but I might just carry on with the subject that the member for Flinders was talking about. It was my great pleasure on Saturday afternoon to head out to the footy in Melrose to see BMW, which is Booleroo-Melrose-Wilmington, play Jamestown-Peterborough. The member for Stuart was out at the game as well. I was the only one there with a Willunga footy club stubby holder, but I was supporting BMW for the day because that is the team of the local member and we were in Melrose. Always safest to stick with the locals. Unfortunately, BMW went down, but Jamestown-Peterborough has a pretty good team this year.

It was a really high level of football and I concur with the member for Flinders' comments that country football, and indeed netball, really are the focal point of the community. People come in each Saturday afternoon from the farms and outlying areas around the towns and contribute and play footy. It is a bit of a pity that we have seen the population drain that we have out of country areas. Booleroo, Melrose and Wilmington were once rivals and then over the years they have had to merge as there have been fewer and fewer players out there.

I was in the Lower Flinders Ranges area to open two ambulance stations on Sunday. The first one was at Booleroo Centre. It is a purpose-built facility for those great ambulance volunteers who do so much work in the region and we were really pleased that the Booleroo Centre ambulance service put in $300,000 towards the new ambulance station. The total cost was $1.1 million and the state government contributed the rest.

It was fantastic just to be able to say thank you to the volunteers, who not only are there when patients need to be transferred or when there is a crash scene or something else to attend, but they are also there for training, every Tuesday night in Booleroo Centre's case. At Orroroo it is a similar story: every Monday night the volunteers there, who are fewer in number than they would like to be, do their training. The local ambulance service there put in $230,000 towards the $1.1 million cost of their new ambulance station.

It is fantastic to see that these great professional volunteers now have professional surroundings in which to train and work out of. I am sure that will be a drawcard for more volunteers to come into the ambulance service. As I have said, they could do with more numbers, and we are hoping that a recruitment drive in the area will mean that they are soon joined by some rookie volunteers who will be trained up.

That part of the world is looking particularly good at the moment after a good start to the season, and it was good to see so many crops going in and growing well. It is one part of the state we have not got to yet on our tour around South Australia on the Grain Handling Select Committee, but we have heard from farmers from those regions who have come into meetings at Crystal Brook and into Clare. I think that is a very important select committee in terms of listening to what people have got to say in the regions and making sure that the mistakes of last season are not repeated again next season and in seasons into the future.

At the football the member for Stuart was kind enough to introduce me to a few people and mentioned my role as parliamentary secretary for health. I heard some good feedback from people. One particular man, a farmer who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, wanted to thank the government. He is on to his second gopher. He said he thought was lucky to get the first one, but when they replaced the one that had worn out he was delighted.

Sometimes it is just good to get out and listen to people and hear those good stories about how the decisions made in this place or in government departments really do affect people. In this gentleman's case it has given him mobility to get around on his farm for a lot more years than perhaps he would have otherwise had. He has had a local welder weld a frame onto it and he has an electric crane on the back of his ute, so he can lift it on and off with the crane. He was at the footy really enjoying himself.

We also climbed Mount Remarkable and walked through Alligator Gorge, and I want to pay tribute to the people from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the upkeep of both those tracks. Our national parks are something to be really proud of.

I went to Quorn, which is in the member for Giles's seat; a great town and really good to see so many tourist activities happening there. It is, along with Hawker, the gateway to the Northern Flinders Ranges. I might mention to the Speaker that there is a great pair of lizard-skin cowboy boots, made in Mexico and a fair few years old, in the Northern Emporium, one of those great stores that you find in regional South Australia. It is a beautiful store, where they not only serve good tea and coffee and Devonshire teas but they also have a range of old clothing, women's hats and men's boots and the like. I wish they had been bigger than size 10 (and I did try to get into them but they would not fit), but you might look good in those cowboy boots, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Thank you member for Mawson. The mind boggles.