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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-23 Daily Xml
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BURTON

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:46): I rise today to speak on the suburb of Burton, which celebrated a number of important anniversaries recently. Burton is a residential suburb approximately 21 kilometres north of the CBD of Adelaide within my electorate. It is located about five kilometres north-west of Salisbury on the Adelaide Plains and contains two important wetland areas, including the Kaurna Park. The Indigenous Australian Kaurna people occupied the land of Burton and the surrounding Adelaide Plains area prior to European settlement, and a Methodist chapel was built in the area around 1858.

The Burton Primary School (R-7) is a local school that opened in 1990 (when the suburb was extraordinarily young and largely fields and paddocks), with its original principal, Wayne Dobbins, still managing the school today in an excellent manner. The school educates up to 400 students each year, and many of the student population come from non-English speaking backgrounds, and around 15 nationalities are represented at the school.

English as a Second Language is an important program at the school, as is the maintenance of mother-tongue languages. Burton Primary School recently opened its new BER hall with a memorable morning that celebrated the first 20 years of the school, with past and present students and 20 significant school friends who have helped establish the school's values of excellence in education over this period.

Each of the special friends was matched on the stage with a student with a special birthday cake, and an amazing Beatles' celebration song was sung. The school community is very proud of the new hall and how it managed to squeeze every last cent from the budget to maximise the school usage options. The hall includes a full court sized gym, a school canteen, an OSHC space for after-school care, a foyer, kitchenette and storage space.

The school is looking forward to the Education Works project to merge the Burton Primary School with the Burton Park Kindergarten, and this will create an exciting birth to 7 school. Also, in the same week of that celebration I had the good fortune to celebrate with the Burton Neighbourhood House. The house organising committee, led by councillor Chad Buchannan, provided a great celebration dinner based on the theme of the community growing together over 20 years.

Historically, the area had very limited infrastructure which was servicing the local community. Originally, the house was built in paddocks and very little else was around it. This meant that the Burton Community Centre was highly valuable to the community. Burton as a suburb has since evolved and developed to include a shopping centre, a very new petrol station and several restaurants.

It is a multicultural community, with residents coming from places such as the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Poland, Italy, Greece and many other countries. When the centre first opened in 1990 it was mainly providing craft activities and programs aimed at women and children within the community when transport was limited.

Over the years, the centre has improved the types of programs it offers and has now aimed for a wider audience. For example, there is now on offer a playgroup, fitness classes, an IT suite, legal advice, a community cafe, as well as traditional art and craft activities. They also provide opportunities for professional development, with speakers on improving career options and resumé-writing workshops.

A fundamental aspect of the centre that remains strong to this point is the importance of community and social interaction within that community. As there are not many options for local residents, particularly those who do not have access to transport, the centre is in walking proximity to many of the things that are important to these people, and they are learning to grow, interact and strengthen the community because of it.

The City of Salisbury, in partnership with the Football Federation of South Australia, is currently developing several soccer pitches, spectator facilities and a function centre, a cafe and a playgroup adjacent to the community centre. This will certainly provide a vibrant mixed-use community hub over coming years. I praise these two organisations for the strength of community they have brought to this area in northern Adelaide.

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