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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-15 Daily Xml
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GILES ELECTORATE

Ms BREUER (Giles) (15:14): I have been privileged in the last few weeks to attend a number of very special events in my electorate. For example, on 20 October I was very pleased to attend a dinner for the 50 years of surf life saving in Whyalla. Life savers have played an important role in our community for 50 years, and it was a very good night. I was very pleased to see many people from the past, who came back to Whyalla to attend the dinner for this event. A couple of old school friends were there. I have been pleased that the lifesaving association in Whyalla has worked for so many years with so many young people. It has been a wonderful organisation in our community, and we thank them very much for the work that they have done.

On 31 October I also attended a function at Whyalla Special School, which happened for a few hours, and which involved all the other primary schools in Whyalla. It was a joint exercise between them, the police, the ambulance, the fire service and the counselling service. The theme of the day was about keeping ourselves safer. Young primary schoolchildren were able to come in and meet with police and ambulance people, and build up trust with them, and they talked about how they were able to keep themselves safe with Stranger Danger and Family Danger within their families. I thought it was a great little exercise and I congratulate all those who were involved in it.

Also, on 2 November I attended the ten-year anniversary of Mission Australia in Whyalla. They have played a very important part in our community also for a number of years and are still continuing to do that. Their work is varied, particularly looking after people with mental health issues, but with young people also, and they have played a major role in people's lives. So, my congratulations to them. It was interesting to see so many people there who work in our community. It was very well attended by people from a cross-section of our community and I think it showed the respect that they hold in our city.

On 2 November I also went to the Quorn Area School for its Food and Fun Fair, which was a great success, and I was very pleased to see so many parents there at this. Sometimes you go along to a school event and there is a bit of a lack of parental involvement in it, but particularly at the Quorn Area School I think everybody in town who had children involved in the school was there, including parents and grandparents. Great food was prepared by the students, and certainly it was a great night for everyone. So, my congratulations to the Quorn Area School.

On 4 November I attended the 25th birthday celebrations of the DPI in Whyalla. The DPI has played a major role in our community, and I remember when they first started. There were very few facilities and services for people with disabilities in our community, as was the case in the rest of the state. There was a similar situation; we did not care very much about people with disabilities in those days. But the DPI formed in Whyalla 25 years ago. Since then they have had some major achievements.

They have certainly made our community aware of issues for people with disabilities. They run a very successful home there, particularly for elderly people, although there are some people with disabilities living at Amaroo Lodge, which does a wonderful job and fulfils a great need in our community. They have made sure that we have had vehicles that are able to travel around and pick up people with disabilities and take them to medical appointments, etc. So, I was very pleased to go along to the DPI celebration and, again, I thank them on behalf of our community for the work that they have done.

Also, on 27 October I attended a wonderful day at Colebrook, just outside of Quorn, and that certainly was one of the highlights for me. The Colebrook Home was first established in 1924 at Oodnadatta by the United Aborigines Missions, and its purpose was integrating Aboriginal children into mainstream white society, which was part of the government policy of assimilation. It housed many children over the years. Now, of course, many of these children represent the stolen generation, and it was a wonderful day to see so many of them there. These people all became what they call brothers and sisters, and there is a very strong family feeling there, a very strong affiliation. They still care about each other and they have produced some incredible leaders from Colebrook.

Colebrook Home was started off in Oodnadatta. It then went to Quorn. It then was moved down to Adelaide, and eventually it was closed, thank goodness, as its very chequered history was based largely upon the past practices of injustices inflicted upon Aboriginal people. After the Colebrook Home closed in Adelaide in due course the former residents of Colebrook actually bought the Colebrook Home at Quorn, the original building that was there. And what they were doing on this day was opening up a dormitory that had been rebuilt, the girls' dormitory, which they use to house school groups, and other people come in. There is very much a cultural awareness there, and they find out about not just Aboriginal culture but also the history of the stolen generation and what happened. Wonderful leaders have emerged from that, people like Lowitja O'Donoghue, George Tongerie, Maud Tongerie, Faith Thomas, Clara Coulthard, to name a few.

Time expired.

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