TALL SHIPS

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide) (17:50): I rise to inform the house yet again of another triumph in the Port, and I am not referring just to the football team. A couple of weekends ago we had the magnificent event of the tall ships visiting Port Adelaide. There were three from Holland, and I will not strain any Dutch speakers' ears by attempting to give their names, but three Dutch ships and an English ship that came on their way through to visiting the Eastern States.

There were some 30,000 South Australians who visited Port Adelaide over the four days when the ships were with us. I have often said that if we do anything at Port Adelaide it will always be a success. People across the state, and across the city in particular, have a very great affection for Port Adelaide and if an excuse is given for them to come and visit they will show up and enjoy everything that the Port has to offer.

Part of the reason the weekend was such a success is that a lot of work had been done by Renewal SA to set up stalls for local traders to offer food, entertainment and products for people to buy, which meant that the business community of Port Adelaide was able to benefit very much from the number of people who came. Also, the Port Adelaide Enfield Chamber of Commerce had the very good idea of having a pirate's trail, a treasure trail. People were encouraged to visit various businesses throughout the Port in order to get the little stickers, and that was, again, very successful in getting people to walk back through into the Port and see all of the very interesting and enticing businesses that exist there.

The dream that I have, of course, is that people will not just come to the Port when there is something special on but that they will come that time, see what is on offer and then come back again and again on more quiet weekends to enjoy the three museums, the cafes, the restaurants and the various shops that are worth having a look at.

So, yet again another successful event. The next event we will be having in Port Adelaide is the festival, and Renewal SA is putting some money in to support the council's effort there on 19 and 20 October, and coming up in February we are very pleased to have the highly successful Laneway music festival occurring. What we are doing in the Port is offering a big range of activities that appeal to a very wide demographic across the state and to remind people, as I say, of the very big attractions that exist in Port Adelaide all the time and encourage them to come back on the quieter weekends to sample those attractions then.