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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-13 Daily Xml
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REMEMBRANCE DAY

The Hon. L. STEVENS (Little Para) (15:42): I would like to speak briefly today on two matters in relation to war and remembrance and particular occasions in my electorate and a nearby electorate. On Sunday 11 November I am sure that most members in the house would have attended Remembrance Day celebrations of one sort or another. I attended, with my colleague the member for Napier, a service at the Elizabeth RSL with quite a large crowd of people and representatives from various armed forces and community members who gathered together to remember our fallen comrades. That short service was followed by the dedication of a special memorial garden. I congratulate the Elizabeth RSL for its efforts in putting together that memorial garden.

The other thing that I would like to talk about today was a particularly wonderful ceremony that occurred at the Montague Farm Estate. I was very pleased to be invited to a Long Tan day ceremony on Saturday 18 August. There was a large crowd of hundreds of people, including you, Mr Speaker, and other dignitaries, such as the Mayor of Salisbury, Tony Zappia, together with members of the armed forces, plus many members of the community, including Vietnam veterans and local schoolchildren. I want to spend a little bit of time telling the house something about the origins of Montague Farm Estate Project. It is entitled 'Moving Forward: the Vietnam veterans awareness project'. They have actually printed a document, which was handed out to people at the ceremony, and I will quote from sections of it to explain what it was about. The booklet states:

In 2004 a community member, married to a Veteran, approached the Neighbourhood House and spoke of the 'specialness' of the Estate—

that is, Montague Farm estate. It continues:

A meeting was organised with all the relevant stakeholders and it was agreed that Veterans would like to see the following undertaken:

an inter-generational project between Veterans and school students (commenced 2004 and ongoing);

special street signage (designed and installed in 2005);

staging of an annual ceremony for Long Tan in the estate [three have already been held];

acknowledgment of the 20 South Australians killed in Vietnam on the dedication plaque [that occurred and was unveiled in August 2007]; and

the design of a significant public artwork 'The Seeds of Attainment'.

That, too, was dedicated and unveiled at the ceremony that we attended. The booklet continues:

Other activities that have been undertaken include:

Mayoral Civic Reception for the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan (August 2006);

memory garden at the Community Centre (undertaken 2006); and

a multimedia project to record the project (to be completed by end of 2007).

On the day that we all assembled, the public artwork called 'The Seeds of Attainment' was unveiled. It is quite a spectacular sculpture. The really impressive thing that has happened at Montague Farm estate is that we had a whole group of people, including the South Australian Housing Trust, the RSL at Salisbury, the Vietnam Veterans Association, Mawson Lakes Primary School, residents of Montague Farm, the Pooraka Farm Community Centre, interested veterans, TAFE SA and the City of Salisbury all working together to provide something of lasting value in that community. The 20 South Australians who were killed have been honoured with particular street signs throughout that estate. The garden that has been created is a wonderful place for community gatherings and the sculpture, 'The Seeds of Attainment', is something that is well worth seeing and something to reflect upon for everyone in the community.

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