Yorke Peninsula Field Days

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:59): I rise today to speak about the Yorke Peninsula field days and the wonderful economic contribution they make to our region over a sustained period of time. This year is a field day year—they happen every second year—and the ag bureaus are starting to gear up around the electorate to host another bumper event.

Thankfully, being a biennial event, the field days were not impacted by COVID last year, and it will be interesting to see how the event copes with the remnants of COVID this year. It will also be interesting to see the number of exhibitors who turn up to our region, the number of guests who are allowed to attend and whether they will have to be turned away, such are the numbers that arrive, as well as other impacts that COVID restrictions might have. Despite all those considerations, it is bound to be an excellent event, and I look forward to attending and having a stall there yet again.

The field days have been running since 1895 and in their current location since 1975. I believe they are acknowledged as the oldest in Australia. I imagine that the field days would be unrecognisable to those who patronised those early efforts, with the modern-day field days becoming multimillion-dollar events, with some of the most high-tech farm equipment money can buy present and available for purchase.

They are also tremendous community events. Local retailers can choose to sell their wares on the site to a wider group of people, with people coming from all over the state to visit, hoping to capitalise on the influx of the roughly 40,000 people who attend on any given year. Local sporting clubs and community groups man the barbecues and canteens to raise money for their clubs, and I know the Pasky footy club do a canteen–I think they do the cans and bottles at the end of the day as well—and the Bute footy club does wonderful bacon and eggs. The list goes on and on.

The 40,000 people who can attend the field days on any given year bring significant economic benefits to our area. I suspect the majority of the exhibitors who come to show their wares would stay locally in our region over the course of the three-day event, and they are likely to eat at the local pub or visit a local restaurant, go to the local supermarket and fill up their car at the local servo. Some visitors might decide that if they do not get to see everything in one day they will hang around to stay the night and do the very same thing. It is a huge deal for our area.

Unfortunately, the field days are going through a slightly tough time after the administrative hut was burnt down, destroying many important historical records along with it. A cruel act of arson, an event completely beyond their control, destroyed office equipment, furniture, files, records and photographs, as well as all sorts of other things essential to the running of the event. Along with those records, the field days also lost the hub from which significant economic activity is generated. They lost the meeting room, the control centre for the event and the very heart of the event itself.

The field days, which are volunteer run, have not been able to muster the finance to completely replace that important administrative hub. The field days committee battled through the 2019 event and hosted it without the use of the admin centre. Although it made for a difficult year, they managed to get through nonetheless, with the hope that they would be able to raise the funds to find a solution before the next event arrived in a couple of years' time. That very solution has been planned: a new conference and administrative centre estimated to cost somewhere in the vicinity of $400,000.

The field days committee and the ag bureaus that populate it have managed to raise some $200,000 towards the initiative, but they need some help in finishing off the fundraising so that they have the proper facilities to host this important economic event that is vital to our region. It was disheartening to hear this week that the Regional Growth Fund application was rejected, despite it being assessed as competitive, but I am sure the field days committee will continue to pursue funding to rebuild after the cruel arson attack.

I have strongly supported the field days committee on a number of initiatives in an attempt to replace the invaluable admin hut, but to date we have had no luck. However, as I said, we will continue to strive to pursue those funding opportunities. We will continue to strive towards replacing the hut, that driver of great economic activity, but they should have had their grant by now and be working towards a solution in replacing that admin hut.

It is a bit of a disappointing result for Narungga, and the members of the hardworking volunteer organising committee of the ag bureaus are sorely disappointed that they will now have to stage another field days event without an office, having failed to secure the funding assistance required to rebuild. Nonetheless, I am sure it will be a wonderful event.

As I said, I am looking forward to having another stall there next door to Rowan Ramsey. We deal with a great many constituents as they come through the door. It is a tremendous event. People come from far and wide to visit our beautiful part of the world, and I am looking forward to the 2021 edition of the Yorke Peninsula field days.