Copper Coast Masters Games

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (15:58): I rise today in jubilant congratulations to the Copper Coast Council on the wonderful job they did recently in hosting the Masters Games between 15 and 18 April. It was a monumental effort from a wonderful and wide group of people who put on a terrific show.

I would like to start by extending that congratulations to Mayor Ros Talbot and council CEO, Russell Peate, on their endeavours in putting on such a wonderful event. They did, of course, lodge a bid in 2019 to host it in 2019, which was unsuccessful, so it was wonderful to see them rewarded now with a successful bid for the 2021 edition—and what a wonderful job they did.

There were some 30 sports held over the course of the weekend around the Copper Coast region with in excess of 1,600 participants—which, I am led to believe, is a record number for the Masters Games. There were a wide number of sports—as I said, 30-odd—ranging from remote-controlled boat racing all the way through to dragon boat racing, as well as more mainstream events like cricket, basketball, football and a number of other different ones. As I said, it was wonderful to see a record number of participants, and quite a few local teams and contestants put their names forward.

I have to say that the football itself, which was hosted at the Kadina Football Oval and which I played a part in helping to organise and host on that Saturday, was wonderful. Of the six teams, five were locals. By the end of the Saturday, with a full day left to run on the Sunday, we reached the point where we no longer had enough participants to man all the teams. A few had to withdraw with various injuries, notably quite a few hamstrings that seemed to go throughout the day, but I know that everyone enjoyed their time playing that nine-a-side football, and quite a few old stories were told amongst participants from the times when they competed against one another.

I also would like to take this opportunity to make a special point of highlighting the important role volunteers played in facilitating this wonderful event. As I already said, there were 30-odd sports, which required a convenor and a chief organiser as well as a whole host of volunteers in order to make those sports run seamlessly. For each one of those 30 sports, there was a local person who was helping to run that event. They were often friends, family and fellow competitors from their local sporting competitions called in to help run those events.

I know that the participants who came from out of town and from far and wide to help populate these sports and participate themselves are most appreciative for the work those volunteers did to make sure that they happened. I can tell you from personal experience, from my umpiring of the basketball, that they were only too willing to offer free advice about how we could better ourselves and make better decisions on the court!

They were most appreciative of the efforts we made to give up our weekend for that time. In all seriousness, it was wonderful to see so many local people come out to help make sure that these Masters Games were a success because, as I said, 1,600 participants visiting our region was a truly wonderful sight to see. The streets were full, the shops were full and it was good to see people welcome them to our region.

I would like to especially point out Lynn Spurling, Chloe Barrett and the organising committee who put in a mountain of work leading up to the event to make sure that everything was ready to host those participants. They have to back it up rather quickly, with the Kernewek Lowender coming up next week, but events like these are what make our communities go around, with the extra income brought into our region and our communities and all the people visiting hopefully for the first of many times. Thank you very much to Lynn, Chloe and the committee that helped organise it because without you we would not have been able to hold the event.

It was a tremendously well-organised event. Lynn and Chloe did a wonderful job and plenty of people approached me throughout the course of the weekend to suggest that we would be well served to have it again. As I said, the council put in a bid for 2019 and missed out. In 2021, it went off without a hitch, so hopefully council will see fit to put in another bid to host the Masters Games once more in the future.

It was a wonderful pleasure to give a speech at the closing ceremony on Sunday night and play a small part in the official handover to Mayor Graham Excell and Tatiara District Council, which is hosting it next year. Tatiara District Council was successful in their bid to host the 2020 games, which unfortunately were put on hold due to the COVID outbreak, so now it will finally be hosting the games in 2022. It was wonderful to host the mayor and have a good chat to him about the details that we felt could have been improved and the wonderful benefits that were offered by hosting it. We sincerely hope that they do a good job and enjoy hosting all those people at Tatiara next year.

Special thanks again go to Sport SA and former member of this place Michael Wright for the wonderful job they did in helping facilitate the Masters Games. I know that Michael came to Kadina for the opening ceremony, back to his old stomping ground where he played plenty of footy, and it was good to see him and have a chat to him. It was a wonderful job by the Copper Coast Council in hosting these games and hopefully we can have them again soon.