Frome Electorate

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (15:42): I would like to discuss a few things here today regarding the electorate of Frome which I am the Labor duty member for. I recently had an opportunity to attend some events in that electorate, and there are a couple I would just like to bring to the house's attention.

First of all was the Undalya Cemetery which I attended, and so did the current member for Frome, and we were there for a plaque-laying ceremony by the Auburn and Moonta National Trust. It was a collective activity by both groups. The reason I mention that, in addition to the plaque which commemorates Paddy Ryan who was the person who actually discovered copper at Moonta—putting aside his interest in history and the history of many others who lived in that area and also in other parts of South Australia; and his history has been covered quite well—is that it shows the important role that local historians play.

Often we enjoy the stories and we enjoy going to places like museums, etc., but often a lot of these events occur because a lot of local historians in our community painstakingly search out information. I would like to pay tribute to Robyn Knight, who is a senior volunteer researcher with the Moonta History Centre, who actually has researched the life of Paddy Ryan.

It came from a whole range of documents, from here to Ireland, to actually put this person's life together. Some of the documents are sometimes inaccurate for a whole range of reasons. Sometimes they are missing, etc. But what local historians do is spend a lot of their time—and they are all volunteers—piecing together bits of information and then telling the full story, and also providing some context for that story, which is really important.

You can actually go to a cemetery or historical site and that is what you see but it is not until you actually hear the stories of the people, how they lived, what their history was that brings the whole thing to life. Local historians are really great at bringing together all those loose threads of information to actually tell the story. I would like to congratulate Robyn on the incredible work she has done to find information about this family because after he died his wife and children went back to Ireland and she actually then followed that story up to see what happened to the family in Ireland. This was going back to pre-1900s, so you can imagine that trying to find documents is not the easiest thing to do. So I would like to pay tribute to our local historians in our communities.

I would also like to pay tribute to one of the service clubs I met with in Clare recently. The Lions Club of Clare invited me to attend their second-hand shop, for want of a better word. It is more a warehouse than a shop; it is a huge place. This is where the Lions Club actually collect furniture, repair furniture and resell it and all the money they raise they put into community projects. For example, they provide some scholarships for students to study. They provide scholarships for young people to do Operation Flinders and they provide a whole range of other programs and support other programs in their community.

It is incredible how much money this group has raised through this endeavour. Obviously, it requires lot of work. They hear about some furniture that is no longer loved, no longer needed, and they go out and collect it, clean it, repair it as required and then sell it. On the day I was there they told me the day before they had sold about two and a half thousand dollars' worth of furniture. I said most small businesses would be happy with that on one day. Because they get the furniture for nothing—there are costs involved, of course—they actually do raise a lot of money for their community groups, so I would like to pay tribute to the Lions Club of Clare.

Another group I would like to quickly pay tribute to is the Two Wells Country Fire Service. I attended their open day on Sunday with Adam Harris and his team. The brigade has about 40 members and they do a wonderful job in protecting our community. In addition to the various demonstrations about hazards, etc., they do fundraising. One of the things they do now is make up little lunch boxes in the shape of a fire truck. Of course, I bought some for my nieces and nephews. It is the sort of thing they do to raise money and they are serving an increasing population. Congratulations to them.