Colton Electorate

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (15:21): I rise today to provide an update of recent events in the electorate of Colton, in particular to reflect on what was a very significant and emotional ANZAC Day service that was held at the Henley & Grange RSL on ANZAC Day.

I have obviously attended a number of services at the Henley & Grange RSL on Seaview Road both as the local member and prior to that, but I must say that I thought this was one of the best services that we have had. It was very well attended. A replacement sound system was one of the things that had been mentioned over the years because it was not easy to hear the proceedings and what was happening during the service. It is a very difficult location on the corner of Seaview Road and North Street and the crowd swells in different directions at times.

I wanted to highlight the performance by Ben Ford-Davies on acoustic guitar for the second year running, which I thought was one of the highlights of the service. His performance last year, and this year as well, was touching and very well received by the crowd. We also had Tim Ginever come down and provide the keynote during the proceedings this year, with his reflection on his good mate Bob Quinn and his history both through part of his football career and also his service through the armed forces. You could tell through the delivery and the way that Timmy G. recounted the stories just how heartfelt and real the connection was that he had with Bob Quinn's story. I just wanted to highlight the great work of Tim Ginever that day.

It was also made especially significant by the fact that we were commemorating the 110^th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. The unique circumstance of having the service so close to the coast meant that for the first time we had representatives from the local surf life saving clubs rowing down and landing just at the end of North Street and then walking up with some of the veterans to the start of the service, which I thought was an excellent addition to the service this year.

Again, I just want to thank everybody involved, from the volunteers from the RSL and more broadly across our community as well. A number of small businesses are involved each and every year in donating a range of products that help facilitate the after-events: the barbecue bacon, eggs, sausages and all sorts that go on down there and coffee with some additional extras depending on what floats your boat on the morning. It is a particularly good event that really brings our community together. For the first time as well, we also had the Henley Sharks Football Club play the following day wearing an ANZAC round jersey. It was very special for them to be able to compete with that insignia this year.

I also want to highlight the return of the Cowdrey Cup. The Lockleys and Henley football clubs will be taking part on 3 May, this Saturday, at 2.15pm down at Lockleys Oval, the fourth edition of the cup after we ended up with both teams being promoted from div 3 to div 2. Last year, Henley got the better of Lockleys across the three games, two to one. The cup is just about to come back with the engraved scores from last year, so we are looking forward to another cracking game of football down at Lockleys Oval on Saturday.

I also want to quickly highlight the great work of the Charles Sturt Museum Trust, which each and every year commemorates the birthday of Captain Charles Sturt. This year was the 230^th edition, which saw a group come together at the Grange. There is a museum off Jetty Street at Grange that houses some memorabilia of Sturt's adventures and his many escapades around our great state. He really had a significant impact.

The trust do that work to ensure that the legacy of Charles Sturt is retained. Some of our young schoolchildren get the opportunity to go through that museum to learn a little bit more and to understand the genesis of our state and many other things along the way of what life was like, given the fact that, as best as possible, the original house has been retained in that condition. There is much to do, much to see and a good game of footy on the weekend out in the west.