Elizabeth

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:23): This week we have been debating the budget and we have had numerous references during the course of that debate, including moments ago, about the decline of the automotive sector and the impending closure of Holden's in October this year. Deputy Speaker, as you know, I live in Elizabeth, about a kilometre from the Holden's site, and I know as well as most people in this place the huge impact it will have not only on Elizabeth but across the north and on the state. Its impact will be most keenly felt in Elizabeth, not simply because of the personal and economic impact of the job losses at Holden and its suppliers but because of the psychological impact it is having and will have on those of us who grew up in Elizabeth.

We have to be mindful about what we are talking about when we say Elizabeth. We are not so much talking about the existing physical suburb; indeed, Elizabeth proper these days means the few square kilometres around the Elizabeth City Centre. It has been subsumed physically and administratively by the City of Playford and by the unbroken urban sprawl which extends to the small green belt before you get to Gawler.

For anyone who grew up in Elizabeth and anyone who has lived in Elizabeth for a long time, there is a very distinct physical and psychological place called Elizabeth. It is not Salisbury, it is not Munno Para, and for a lot of people it is not even the City of Playford, whose borders spread far beyond what anyone understands to be Elizabeth. For those of us who grew up there, and for those of us who live there, it is very clear where Elizabeth is. It is in many ways hard to define, but it is culturally different from other parts of the metropolitan area. People are proud to be from Elizabeth. They recognise its faults, they acknowledge and even celebrate them with a dark humour, and they express this pride to me all the time in person, in correspondence and, lately, through social media.

I think there are several factors that have gone into making up this separate identity. The first is the presence of the Housing Trust, which oversaw in the fifties (under Tom Playford's premiership) the establishment of a whole new city with its own distinct look, its standardised house designs, its neighbourhood centres, its large open spaces and—in what I think is increasingly seen as a flaw—a car-centred approach to planning, which was not uncommon in the fifties and sixties.

The second factor is the overwhelmingly British migration in the establishment of Elizabeth—the ten-pound Poms and all the particular cultural characteristics that that brought, including the legacy of certain brands of sport and music. This is not to detract at all from the recent waves of migrants from all over the world who have added depth and richness to our community.

Overshadowing all these factors is Holden. Obviously, people come from far and wide to work at Holden's, but everyone in Elizabeth has some connection to this place. It looms large over the whole city and its psyche, and Holden's closure is going to hit us hard. It is going to strike at the heart of the identity of those who live in Elizabeth. However, we are seeing in its wake something of a revival in local history, a determination on behalf of long-time residents, and former residents, to keep the particular cultural identity of Elizabeth alive.

We saw the biography of Jimmy Barnes last year—and I alluded earlier to a legacy of British music in Elizabeth—which gave us a pretty bleak picture of growing up in Elizabeth. Jimmy Barnes and I went to the same school.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Not at the same time.

Mr ODENWALDER: We were separated by 15 years or so. He is older than me, I think, and my experience, it is fair to say, seems to have been happier than his. At least parts of his story, if you have read it, may have been typical of many of those earlier ten-pound Poms. There are various other projects, of course, less celebrated than Jimmy Barnes' attempts to celebrate the uniqueness of Elizabeth.

A local I have known for a long time, Sarah Jones, is working on an ongoing history of scouting in Elizabeth, and I think that is more evidence of the British connection. Scouting has played quite a significant role in the development of Elizabeth. There is also a popular Facebook page, which nearly got me in trouble during the last election campaign, called 'It's pronounced Lizbef', which on one level is proof that we can laugh at ourselves and simultaneously be fiercely loyal and protective about Elizabeth. That Facebook site is a very interesting forum for people to share their experiences and, in many cases, connect and reconnect with others who have shared those experiences.

More recently, I have become aware of the work of Eric Algra, who is not only an incredible photographer but, in one of those Adelaide moments, is also a friend of the member for Ashford. Unbeknownst to me, he grew up very close to me, indeed very close to where I now live. He is working on a blog called the Elizabeth Project and, more specifically, a work called Transitions, which is capturing in words, photos and multimedia the very identity I have been talking about, particularly around the closure of Holden's.

It is very interesting that since reposting some of Eric's blog people have got in touch with me and there has been a 'beflowering' of interest in the history of Elizabeth and in recording that interest. I look forward to expanding on this and Eric Algra's work in later grievance debates.