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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-14 Daily Xml
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TRUE GRIT

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:47): Today I rise to talk about an event that was held in the Riverland on the weekend. It was a True Grit event which is a unique event held here in Australia. It is the first of its kind and was held in the Riverland at a place called Qualco, which is in close proximity to Waikerie.

True Grit is the first military-style obstacle challenge in Australia, designed and operated by Australian Special Forces and it held its inaugural event in the Riverland on both Saturday and Sunday. The military-style obstacle course spans a distance of around 12 kilometres and has about 30 obstacles along the course. It really was quite a sight to see, with people scaling four-metre walls, climbing rope obstacles and dodging fire. You had to be there to understand just exactly what the challenge was about.

Over the two-day event, held at Caudo Vineyards at Qualco, over 10,000 people attended, and that really is a significant event in itself, particularly in the Riverland, with over 5,075 competitors from all over Australia that took part in the event. The many thousands of spectators were aghast at what some of these competitors had to do to get from one end of the course to the other.

The success of the event was not only shown with the people who actually finished the course but social media hailed it as an absolute success. It was not only a success for those people who competed, but for the South Australian tourism industry and for the Riverland it was a much-needed shot in the arm for our local economy. I had people coming up to me saying that they had made the journey from Adelaide. It was just a constant stream of cars that were heading up to the Riverland and, of course, myself coming from the north of the Riverland, I was locked into a stream of cars as well that were all headed to the True Grit event.

This event all came about due to the Caudo family at Qualco. Christine, Joe and Zac Caudo need to be commended because they approached both the state and federal governments for some financial assistance because, as many would know in here, to hold an event of such size and significance would be a huge outlay. I know that the Caudo family ended up bypassing the government grant system, took it on their own backs just to get on with it and outlaid a significant amount of money. It is reported that they invested over $200,000 to get this event up and running, so I think they need to be commended.

Not only that, there were a lot of doubters at the beginning of this event who said they could not see how such a large event could be held in the Riverland with such a small support base but, as time went by, the good people of Waikerie and surrounding districts—Morgan, Cadell and all of the Riverland towns—rallied together and showed their support for the Caudo family. I think young Zac also needs to be further commended. He took this challenge on board and, I think, without his tenacity, it would not have been the success it was.

The course was designed by Matt Cardinaels and Adam McNamee, who have served a combined 33 years in the Australian Army and have spent about the last 20 years of their careers in the Australian Special Forces. Those two gentlemen from the armed forces again put up a great course. I think the combination of the Caudo family, the Caudo Vineyard and the support from the service clubs and the sporting clubs, particularly from Cadell, Waikerie and Morgan, also needs to be commended, because bringing such a large operation into a small country region was truly an absolutely monumental task.

One of the other things that was a highlight of the weekend was that over 60 per cent of the competitors were women and they were all dressed in lycra, so it really was a very, very competitive environment dominated by the competitive women. The event also supported Legacy and the Commando Welfare Trust to raise money for those families of fallen and injured Australian soldiers.

Time expired.

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