Colton Electorate

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (15:25): I rise today to recognise and honour the life of Andrew Lanyon. Andrew was a member of the Henley Surf Life Saving Club for many years and unfortunately passed away recently. On the most recent weekend, on Saturday, the club held a celebratory swim in his honour out the front of the Henley surf club. It was so well attended by many members, not just by life members of the Henley surf club but also more broadly by others his life had touched from other surf clubs around South Australia and many from the open water swimming community as well.

Andrew was a much-loved member of the club and had organised the club swim for many, many years. It was something that was a significant passion of his, each and every time, to have the opportunity to work the Excel sheet, work out who should be going off where and working out who was lining up and swimming PBs. His one thing that he always prided himself on was the number of participants who were taking part in the swim. Seeing the reaction of the surf club and the reaction of the broader community in honouring his life, I thought it was worthy to ensure that legacy was read into Hansard today and put on the public record. Vale Andrew Lanyon.

Last week, I also had the opportunity to attend the opening of an art exhibition in Henley Beach on Marlborough Street at a reasonably new business called Up In Frames and Creative Soul Prints, the brainchild of Rhi and Marek, who have really made themselves central to the Henley Beach community. The exhibition was called Set Her Free, and it involved Rhi and Marek pulling together 30 artists, some of them local and some of them from a little bit further afar, to paint 30 by 30 centimetre canvases.

Each of those, on the opening night and more broadly across the time that the exhibition will be open, will be sold off to raise funds for a charity called Destiny Rescue, who dedicate themselves to reducing and hopefully eliminating child trafficking. It was a fantastic event, expertly MC'd. I was lucky enough to join them and the artists who were there, who had obviously dedicated their time and talents to paint those canvases. It was a fantastic event, and I congratulate them on the work they have done and their community spirit in raising funds for that fantastic organisation.

As we get to this time of year when we get closer and closer to the Christmas season and as we start to enter summer, it is one of the most exciting times of the year as the beach and coastal community really starts to come alive with summer sport openings and Christmas events. Just today, I had the opportunity to pop down to the Airport Over 50s Club for their annual Christmas event. It was fantastic to see and spend time with many of their members: Rick, Nancy and Sheila and the rest of the committee and members more broadly of the Airport Over 50s Club. I thoroughly enjoy having the opportunity to go down there and spend time with them each and every year.

In the coming weeks, there is also an event that is almost an event that cannot be missed in the Henley Beach area, which is the carols in the square. On 1 December, we have the opportunity, in the most picturesque setting in the whole of suburban Adelaide, to have the square transformed with a stage, Christmas carols, young people and more senior alike filling the square, having the opportunity to come down and share some Christmas carols and broader Christmas cheer in one of the places that cannot be missed, to be completely honest. I encourage everyone to get along.

That event will take place on 1 December, and I look forward to seeing as many members of our community down there as possible getting into the Christmas cheer and enjoying what is one of the most fabulous times of the year. As I said, I look forward to seeing everybody over the coming couple of weeks as our community really gets up and underway as the sun starts to come out, the beach starts to enjoy a few more patrons, and we start to really enjoy the summer period.