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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-08 Daily Xml
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STUART HIGHWAY ARTWORK

Ms BREUER (Giles) (15:53): I want to report today on a number of issues, but, first, I want to say that last week I travelled down the Oodnadatta Track, and a number of issues came up while I was there. One particular issue, though, was that, on the way back, we had to drive along the Stuart Highway, and I want to mention the new artwork that Port Augusta has installed there and suggest that, perhaps, they should name it the Graham Gunn art memorial, seeing that the member for Stuart is leaving very shortly. It is quite an interesting art project there in Port Augusta. I know that the member for Stuart is a simple country boy, as I am a simple country girl. We do not know very much about art but we do know what we like.

Like me, I know that the member for Stuart is somewhat overawed by the project. It was designed and coordinated by an artist, Margaret Worth, and it is unique to regional South Australia. Of course, it includes the causeway itself, which is very good, because it includes the smell of the sea as you go across. The gravel mounds component is quite unique. I know that some say, 'When will that be spread?' Obviously, they do not see the colours of the local landscape in these gravel mounds. The swinging poles, with the windvanes atop these coloured poles, apparently have local stories in each one. Port Augusta has re-imagined itself apparently through its art project. It is a visible and personalised story of Port Augusta. Coming from Whyalla, I can only say: Port Augusta, you have done it again.

On my trip, I had an opportunity to discuss a number of issues particularly related to tourism. I also want to comment today about an event that has recently occurred in Whyalla. The Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia Limited had their 23rd anniversary CMCA rally in Whyalla. This was an amazing event. I had the honour of closing the event on Sunday night. It brought approximately 2,000 to 3,000 visitors to our town. It was incredible to see the number of campervans and motor homes that were parked in the showground area. It brought something like $3 million of revenue into our town. The revenue went to place like hairdressers, local delis and small businesses in town. I suppose basically it was the grey nomads who were there. In fact, when I closed it, I asked whether there was anyone under 60. I felt that I was part of a minority group. It is really quite impressive when you are under 60 to be part of a minority group. They had a wonderful time.

Mr Pengilly: You're not a grey nomad.

Ms BREUER: I enjoyed myself. I never felt so young. They had a wonderful time. It was so impressive to see. I was told about this about 12 months ago. When they came in to see me, I thought what on earth are they talking about, what is this rubbish, but it was a fantastic exercise and the people of Whyalla really appreciated their visit. We welcome them back. We hope that they will visit other places and bring other people back to our city in the future. It was just an amazing event. Congratulations to everyone involved.

I mention some of the other issues I discovered and discussed with locals while I was up north. Primarily I was looking at the impact of the proposed new act relating to the Outback Areas Trust which is now in another place—and I will be discussing that at some other stage.

One of the issues which I know is really important for tourism is the need for more toilets in the outback. There are not enough toilets, particularly for women. It is very difficult when you are travelling long distances and there is four and five hours between toilet stops. I would urge the Minister for Tourism to look at that seriously.

One thing that has happened is that there are many rest stops along the highways now. I was told that these are sucking the blood out of some of the small communities in the outback because people are camping at these rest stops, rather than camping in the smaller communities and using their caravan park facilities. I can understand that, if you are travelling around Australia, you do not want to be paying huge fees every night. As I said to the people at the camping show, please keep in mind that these little communities rely on tourism, and they rely on people using their facilities and their caravan parks. Rather than their staying at these little rest stops, I would urge them to go into the little communities.

Another problem when people are travelling is that they go into outback communities and expect to be given water at caravan parks, rest stops or wherever. They think that there is plenty of water and get quite angry when people will not give them water, but they have to be aware that many of these communities have very limited water. Everything is extremely expensive. You are looking at paying $10 or $12 per kilolitre for water. It is just incredible to be expecting that caravans can come in and load up with their water.

Another issue that arose was the emptying of their chemical toilets. They have to be extremely careful about where they empty them. I think we need to look at having more places where they can be emptied, because people are either emptying them in the septic tanks, which then messes up the septic tanks, or emptying them on the side of the road. I finish with wishing the member for Morialta all the best in her forthcoming wedding—congratulations.

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