Dairy Industry

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:39): Thank you, Mr President, and my frustrations will remain for as long as we do not get proper answers from ministers when we ask questions in the parliament. I will not apologise for challenging those ministers when they have made cuts to budgets and will not admit the facts.

On a happier note, I rise on this matter of interest to congratulate a very hardworking, diligent group of locals from my own region, namely, the Fleurieu Peninsula. I speak of the Southern Fleurieu Historical Museum: they do an absolutely magnificent job at Port Elliott on the showgrounds site, and I encourage all members of parliament, when visiting our magnificent Fleurieu Peninsula, to visit the museum. It is an amazing opportunity to explore how agriculture and rural and regional areas of the Fleurieu Peninsula developed.

Of particular excitement to me was that in early May I was invited, both as a member of parliament and also as a dairy farmer, to the opening of the Legendairy permanent museum for dairy in South Australia. It is full credit to Mr Deanne and Anne Perry, Mr Des Hunt, and a friend of mine and a great dairy farmer in his own right, although he always milked Friesians, and I could not understand why he did not join our family and milk jerseys. But, other than that, he was a very good dairy farmer, very skilful when it came to the knowledge of show cattle and the confirmation of cows, and also a tireless worker in our region. I refer to Mr Colin Ekers and his wife Kate.

Colin was the driving force behind the opportunities for Legendairy being funded through Dairy Australia, to be the headquarters for the dairy history of South Australia. Deanne and Anne Perry, and all the other hardworking volunteers in the Southern Fleurieu Historical Museum deserve to be congratulated for a Legendairy exhibition and for all the exhibitions in the museum. It was opened by our President of the South Australian Dairy Farmers Association, David Basham, and it was great to see his daughters and wife supporting him, his mum and dad and other relatives, because he is the fifth generation to dairy farm down the road from us, on the Goolwa Road the other side of Mount Compass, but importantly the Bashams were one of the original dairy farming families to supply milk to the Port Elliott area. In fact, Port Elliott was one of the first areas to dairy in South Australia, and that was another reason the Port Elliott showgrounds were chosen for this site.

It is interesting that in all the years I have been in dairying that you see technology improving all the time. You see breeding improving and the general management processes and procedures around dairying, but when you go to look at this site it gives you an easy reflection on just how hard was the dairy industry in those early days when they did not have the computerisation, the technology and things like artificial insemination to help with the breeding of your herd. All of that history is there on site. A lot of hard work has been done by these volunteers, and I am pleased that all dairy farmers in South Australia, through their levies to Dairy Australia, were able to contribute financially to assist with this display.

But, not all the money was provided. Money was directly provided from the Southern Fleurieu Historical Museum and sponsors, and these volunteers have worked tirelessly to raise money to be able to build these facilities and allow future generations to see the important history of agriculture, tourism and the general opportunities we have on the great Fleurieu Peninsula, but in this instance particularly to be able to show people how important is the dairy industry. Whilst at the moment we face unprecedented challenges, I hope and trust that we will all get through those and that we will see further growth in exhibits into the future and further stories of the history and successes of the dairy industry in South Australia being shown through the museum Legendairy at Port Elliott.