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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-27 Daily Xml
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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (14:10): My question is directed to the Premier in his capacity as the Minister for the Arts. Will he advise the house in relation to significant private contributions made to the South Australian Museum in the last financial year?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:10): I thank the honourable member for her question. Private benefactors are the lifeblood of the state's cultural institutions. Their support and generosity has made the state's art and heritage collections into the finest in the country, with areas of international significance.

Contributions by private individuals and organisations supplement state government funding and provide a strong boost to the Museum. Private donations take the form of works of art or other acquisitions/collections and cash donations used to expand the collections.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I beg your pardon?

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: The South Australian Museum has been systematically collecting objects and specimens for over 150 years for research, education and enjoyment. I can understand why the Deputy Leader of the Opposition does not like the collection of specimens, given that she did not want Bevan Spencer von Einem to be DNA tested: soft on crime, soft on the causes of crime. As for those in the upper house, there was corruption by some of the members involved in coaching witnesses.

Along with programs developed by the Museum to target specific collecting activities, the people of South Australia have long recognised the importance of our collections and their significance for a better understanding of the world around us. They have supported the Museum in many ways, but none more so than through generous and important donations over the years. Their support is even stronger today, with donations for the 2007-08 financial year totalling over $1.5 million.

The South Australian Museum has been thrilled to receive four significant donations during the past 12 months that have appreciably enhanced the Museum's collections and records: the Yandruwandha Breast Plate (otherwise known as the Burke and Wills Breast Plate), the Ursula McConnel archives, the Godfrey shell collections and the Gareth Thomas collection of photographic material.

The Yandruwandha Breast Plate was given to the Aboriginal people of South Australia in 1862 by the Royal Society of Victoria, in recognition of the group's endeavours in trying to save members of the Burke and Wills expedition near Cooper Creek a year earlier. The breast plate had been discovered buried in desert sands in 2001. Purchased by Mr Kerry Stokes for $209,600, the breast plate was donated to the Museum in recognition of the unique engagement between the Yandruwandha people and the remnants of the failed expedition and its unique importance to South Australia and our nation.

The Hoff Collection. During the late 1920s, 75 Aboriginal artefacts were collected by Pastor Carl Hoff from the Wirangu and the Kokatha people at the Koonibba Lutheran Mission on the West Coast of South Australia. This year the Museum was presented with the Hoff Collection by Pastor Hoff's son, Dr Lothar Hoff.

The donation more than doubles the Museum's holding of artefacts from the Koonibba area and was made in recognition of the outstanding world class Aboriginal collection held by the South Australian Museum. In the South Australian Museum we have the best collection of Aboriginal artefacts anywhere in the world, and we have the best representation of Aboriginal contemporary art in the South Australian Art Gallery.

The Ursula McConnel Collection. Ursula McConnel worked extensively with the Wik people of Cape York Peninsula during the 1920s and 1930s. She was acknowledged as an accomplished bush woman and defender of Aboriginal civil rights. A trunk containing 3,000 manuscript pages and over 900 photographs was rescued from an Adelaide demolition site by Mr Roger Langford who, recognising the significance of the contents, referred them to the Museum for initial inspection.

The documents and photographs were immediately identified as providing a significant additional anthropological record of the Wik people and substantially enhanced the small archival collection of McConnel manuscripts already held by the Museum. Mr Langford donated this newly discovered collection to ensure its ongoing access to scholars and in recognition of it complementing the extensive Museum collection of Aboriginal photographs. This collection has been valued at $425,000.

The Godfrey Shell Collection was donated by the Godfrey family in recognition of Mr Frank Godfrey's association with the South Australian Museum and to complement the ongoing work related to the Museum's Marine Invertebrates Collection. The family also donated $10,000 in cash towards the documentation and integration of the collection to the Museum's extensive malacology holdings, and I know that there is a lot of interest in malacology in this chamber.

Mr Frank Godfrey was an honorary assistant conchologist at the South Australian Museum during the late 1930s. His collection numbered over 4,000 shells, with virtually all specimens labelled as to the location they were collected from. The handmade collection cases containing the specimens also form part of the donation.

Lastly, the Gareth Thomas Collection of photographic material of over 1,200 items was donated to the Museum's polar collections, including important Frank Hurley photographs. This collection has been valued at over $500,000. Ultimately, a price cannot be put on what these collections give to our community and what we can learn from them, so I want to thank those benefactors who have made these very generous contributions.

In addition, the Museum has received approximately $36,000 in cash donations from around 60 private benefactors in response to the last request for support from the SA Museum Foundation. That money will go directly to the Biodiversity Gallery development.

When talking about private benefactors, it is also important to remember the countless people who provide support to our cultural institutions through in-kind support and volunteering. At the Museum, both the Waterhouse Club and the Friends of the South Australian Museum support the work of the Museum through in-kind support of volunteers and private benefactors supporting the activities of both groups. This support is invaluable to the Museum in providing cash support, in interpreting the collections and in research.

I encourage members to donate their own archives to the Mitchell Library. I think it is a very important part of the historical record. When I think of the things that occurred here back in the 1970s, in the Dunstan era, I certainly will be handing over my entire archive to the collection, including—and this is breaking news—the material leaked to me by the opposition when in government.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: We won't have room for that.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: It will be a big collection. I also have notes of the phone calls that I received, but—

Mr Hamilton-Smith interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Good. I am sure—

Members interjecting:

Mrs REDMOND: Point of order, Mr Speaker.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader will come to order! The member for Heysen.

Mrs REDMOND: The Premier appears to be debating the issue at this point, sir. All his comments up until the most recent were really on the point, but he has diverged from that to just commentary at this stage.

The SPEAKER: I do not uphold the point of order. I think the Premier is talking about his own private endowments, or potential endowments. He is in order. The Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I was hoping, given that we have dealt with malacology and conchological holdings, that people would welcome the fact that this extraordinary political archive from Dunstan forward would be made available for the historical records of this case—including 880 pages of leaked cabinet documents, including one file that brought down one Liberal premier and the other one that brought down another Liberal leader; and it will reveal the sources of my information.

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