Riverland Field Days

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE (Chaffey—Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development) (15:09): I would like to speak about some of the fantastic weekend events up in the electorate of Chaffey. In particular, a week or so ago we had our 62^nd year of Riverland Field Days. It was a great opportunity for me to go to the field days, as I always do, with the annual stand my office and I have there. It was a great day to celebrate the hospitality of the Riverland and to showcase some of the great initiatives and work, the complementary stalls and stands and the machinery. What it really showed me was the camaraderie of the Riverland and the ag sector.

Obviously, the field days have been around for a long time. If we look back in history to 1958, the Riverland Field Days used to be called the 'gadget day'. Once upon a time, the primary producers and the agriculturalists would invent gadgets and tools to help their trade and to help them on farm. Today, because of mechanisation and the like, we now have a lot of industry stands and tractor stands—all the equipment—come along, as well as the great Riverland food and all the complementary stands and the service sector. They all had great weather to showcase what they did.

It was great to see the Premier up there for the second year in a grow. He was there talking and listening to people and their concerns, and by and large he was warmly greeted while he was there. It was his second visit in two years. The last time that we had a Premier at the field and gadget days was 2001 and the opening of the field and gadget days by the Hon. John Olsen. It is great to see that the Premier committed his time to one of the great calendar events. There were 13,000 visitors. I was also part of the safari trail, and that gave me the opportunity to engage not only with the young ones coming to get their show bags but also with their parents, who always came up and gave a good conversation piece, with raffles and the like.

I was also fortunate enough to make an announcement, under the Regional Growth Fund, about the weather station network. We have previously seen weather station networks through AG Excellence Alliance in the Mid North, and the rollout of 42 weather stations has been very successful. We have now seen the funding put in place for a further 30 weather stations. Those weather stations give real-time information and data to our primary sector, but primarily it is so that we can coexist.

When the dryland farmers need to spray, they can understand what the weather conditions are like, as well as the inversion layers and the wind shifts, so that they do not have spray drift and do not impact on the vineyards on the neighbouring properties. I think it is a great initiative, a great tool and it is a great part of ag tech in agriculture. Peter Cousins and GPSA were there to support the announcement. Peter Cousins has been instrumental in the rollout of these weather station networks, and I commend his good work.

The Premier and I also visited the Riverland footy grand final and the clash between the Waikerie Magpies and the Renmark Rovers. The Waikerie Magpies have been absolutely stupendous for a number of years, with their power and their winning formula—I think it is three consecutive grand finals. The Premier tossed the coin. He backed the Magpies, as he does, and I backed the Rovers to win by seven points, but I was a little out. The Rovers got up in the last quarter and never looked back. It was a great game of country footy. The Riverland footy league is as strong as it has ever been. It was a spectacle to watch and showed that the capacity of country footy is up and about and on great display.

From there, I went to the Waikerie Institute where I was fortunate enough to listen to the Australian String Quartet. I was joined by the President from the other place, the Hon. Andrew McLachlan. We had a great evening listening to some of Australia's best string musicians, as well as the wind instrumentalists who came along and entertained us for a number of hours. It really highlights one of the great things about the Riverland.

I would also like to acknowledge Margot Kranich from Loxton, who was announced as the 2018 Citizen of the Year. She is a German and English teacher at the Loxton High School and has 30-plus years of service to the community. Will Gillett was the Young Person of the Year. He is the deputy head prefect at the Loxton High School and a great, outstanding young fellow who also completed work experience in my electorate office. It really does show that Waikerie's hospitality was out and about, as it always is. It was a great weekend.