Ebsary, Mr E.

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:29): I rise today to speak about an incredible man. I was fortunate enough to visit the Bute RSL on Sunday and witness Ed Ebsary being awarded a meritorious service medal from the Returned and Services League. Ed, who is 99 years of age, received the highest award the RSL can offer, over and above life membership.

After enlisting in July 1940 with the infantry, Ed served our country valiantly in Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Papua New Guinea, and served until 1945. He was wounded a couple of times but always returned to conflict. At the RSL, he related a story of a time when he had pulled out a grenade and was preparing to pull the pin when he was shot in the hand and lost a portion of his finger, but he was quite grateful that the bullet did not hit the grenade itself.

After briefly flirting with remaining in the Army after the war, Ed returned to his family farm on Yorke Peninsula, between Bute and Port Broughton, and began his long involvement with the local community. He joined the Port Broughton RSL in 1946 and then transferred to the Bute RSL in 1948. He has been a member of the Bute RSL for 70 years, which is an absolutely incredible effort. He first served as president of Bute RSL in 1953 and was secretary in 2005—an incredible longstanding effort towards serving his RSL. During that time, he did eight years as president, five years as vice president and many years as treasurer and secretary as well. He was awarded life membership of the RSL in 1990.

Ed has long been committed to the region in terms of sport. He is a life member of three different places: he was made a life member of the Broughton Football League in 1997, a life member of the Mundoora/Wokurna Football Club in 1988 and, in the same year, a life member of the Broughton Mundoora Football Club. He has also been heavily involved in tennis, basketball and lawn bowls.

Ed has also been committed to agriculture in the area and was made a life member of the Bute Ag Bureau in 1957. He had served the required 20 years on the ag bureau to justify life membership. He also served on the committee that was formulated to arrange the celebrations for the centenary of the ag bureau and took responsibility for compiling a history from the records and minute books. He reported that past secretaries had scarcely been legible handwriters, particularly the former local doctor, who served as secretary for a time and wrote his minutes in the same manner in which he filled out his scripts.

Ed was active on the Bute Hospital board, where he was a board member for 20 years and a chairperson for 14 years, and he fought valiantly to keep the hospital as an ongoing concern. He also served the SES in numerous capacities and was awarded the National Medal in 1989. His further contributions to the community are too many to mention, but they include the masonic lodge, Rural Youth, the Uniting Church and so on and so on. This extraordinary total of contributions was recognised in 1990, when he was Bute's Citizen of the Year, and in 1991, when his name appeared on the Queen's Birthday List of Honours and he was proud to receive an Order of Australia Medal for his services to the community. That medal was presented to him by Governor Dame Roma Mitchell later that year.

Ed is an absolute titan of the Yorke Peninsula community, and we thank Ed for his service to the country first and foremost, for the sacrifices he made in conflict and for his service to our community over many, many years. Finally, I offer my congratulations on his most recent accolade. It is well earned and well deserved.

I would encourage all members, if they are ever in Bute, to visit the Bute RSL, which is a fascinating place. The walls are adorned with past service men and women who served in conflicts, both those who came home and those who were not so fortunate and did not. The weekly eight-ball tournament is an absolute joy to attend and brings in all different kinds of people. So, if you are ever in Bute, make sure that you visit the RSL. Ed informed all of us in the RSL that day that he had plenty of years left, and we are looking forward to seeing the contribution he makes to our community going forward. In conclusion, I would like to summarise the awards that Ed has won:

Life member of the Bute Ag Bureau;

Life member of the Broughton Football League;

Life member of the Mundoora/Wokurna Football Club;

Life member of the Broughton Mundoora Football Club;

National Medal for services to the State Emergency Service between 1963 and1971;

Life membership of the RSL;

Bute Citizen of the Year; and

the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the community.

Thank you, Ed, for your service and we look forward to seeing what you can do going forward.