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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-11-28 Daily Xml
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Condolence

Rolton, Mrs Gillian

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for the Arts) (16:01): By leave, I move:

That the House of Assembly expresses its deep regret at the death of Gillian Rolton OAM and places on record its appreciation of her long and meritorious service to the sport of equestrian as a dual Olympic champion, Sport Australia Hall of Fame member and director of the Australian International 3 Day Event.

South Australia lost one of its most inspiring sportswomen, one of its finest citizens, with the passing earlier this month of Mrs Gillian Rolton OAM. She was admired across the country and the world for her achievements, especially at the Olympic Games in Barcelona and Atlanta in the 1990s. In more recent times, she was known to many of us in this place for her outstanding leadership with the Adelaide-based Australian International 3 Day Event.

Most significantly, Gillian was loved by so many people for her fundamental decency and goodness of heart. In the past week or so, and at the moving state funeral I had the honour of attending yesterday in Victoria Park, we have heard stories and tributes that speak to her remarkable personal qualities. There was her courage and determination, traits she demonstrated when riding for a gold medal with broken bones at Atlanta and in fighting a battle against the cancer that eventually claimed her life. There was her desire, stemming in part from her background as a school teacher, to enrich the lives of young people and to help them fulfil their potential.

Gillian was also respected for her total commitment to equestrian. At the conclusion of her stellar riding career, she remained dedicated to the sport she loved through her work as a coach, a teacher, an assessor, a selector, a judge and a commentator. I must say that, from the perspective of the state government, her directorship of the Australian International 3 Day Event was a model of sound organisation and entrepreneurialism. With vision and professionalism, she made it extremely popular among competitors, spectators and sponsors across the world. It now has the distinction of being the only four-star equestrian event in the Southern Hemisphere.

It is no surprise that Gillian Rolton received many honours and accolades in her life. She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1993. She was one of eight flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. She received an Australian Sports Medal in the same year. In 2016, Gillian was elevated to the status of legend alongside Don Bradman, Barrie Robran, Bart Cummings and Victor Richardson in the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame.

Yesterday's funeral service, held in the Parklands Gillian so adored, was a beautiful, evocative and perfectly Australian farewell. Gillian's coffin was draped in the Olympic flag. Magpies warbled in the background, and her lovely golden retriever, Josie, wearing green and gold ribbons, said her own goodbye by briefly lying down next to the casket. We also heard so many touching stories. There were recollections about how, as a girl, she stole books about horses from the library, about how she ignored advice that horses would not get her anywhere in life and about how she sometimes mislaid her gold medals when showing them to people while talking at events or doing school visits and how they would somehow always make their way back to Gillian.

The revered sporting commentator Bruce McAvaney nicely summed up Gillian by saying that her passion was horses but her talent was perseverance. With her graciousness and determination, with her charisma and winning smile, I suspect that we are unlikely to see anyone quite like Gillian Rolton for a very long time. On behalf of members on this side, I extend my condolences to Gillian's husband, Greg, and to her family and friends.

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (16:04): On indulgence, I rise to speak about the recent passing of Gillian Rolton OAM. Sir Donald Bradman, Bart Cummings, Barrie Robran and Victor Richardson are all legends in the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame. Last year, they were joined by Gillian Rolton. Haven't we been blessed, as a state, with such outstanding sports men and women?

Gillian Rolton's story is nothing short of extraordinary. In her 20s, she was injured in a motorcycle accident, and in her 30s she dislocated an elbow before the final selection trial and missed out on the 1988 Olympics. But nothing could defeat or deter Gillian Rolton. At the 1992 Olympics, she won gold in Barcelona in team eventing and did it again in 1996 in Atlanta. On both occasions, it was on her beloved Peppermint Grove. But it was in Atlanta that horse and rider showed supreme courage and determination—anyone who saw it on television will never forget their performance—after Peppermint Grove skidded during the endurance phase of the event.

With a broken collarbone, broken ribs and a punctured lung, Gillian guided Peppermint Grove over another 15 jumps covering three kilometres. On her way to hospital afterwards, she refused painkillers, concerned that she might have to ride again, representing Australia, the next day. The performance of Gillian and Peppermint Grove inspired a nation and it still does to this day. As Gillian later said, 'You don't go to the games to be a wuss. You don't go to the games to be a wimp. You go to the games because you've got to get through those finish flags no matter what.'

Unlike most of our top riders, Gillian chose to live here in Australia, not overseas. On her retirement, after 16 years as a top international competitor, she continued to give back to the sport that had given her so much. She opened a riding school to help young eventing riders. She helped establish the national interschools program. She was a national selector and, later, an international equestrian judge officiating at the 2012 London Olympics.

In 1997, she established the Australian international horse trials. Within a decade, it became the only four-star event in the Southern Hemisphere and is now the Australian International 3 Day Event. In her final days, Gillian was still involved with its administration: just like in Atlanta, she could not be kept down. Just like another of South Australia's dual gold medal Olympians, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, Gillian did her state and our nation proud in the arena and long afterwards.

The last time I saw Gillian Rolton was at this year's Premier's appeal gala dinner. Despite the advanced stage of her illness, she seemed to be enjoying the evening, engaging with many people and for most of the evening was surrounded by fans, people who wanted to come up and remember her heroic feats representing Australia. At one stage, she was in a group comprising Glynis Nunn, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson and Raelene Boyle and herself. It was a great group of girls. I pulled out my phone and asked, 'Would you mind if I took a photograph? You all look so lovely.' I am so glad that I did. I took that photograph and sent it to all four of them, and Greg called me afterwards to say that he had sent it to her in hospital. She really enjoyed remembering that evening. It was a very special night.

In expressing our deep sympathy to her husband, Greg, we trust that he will be sustained by the memory of Gillian's outstanding courage, determination and success both as a competitor and an administrator. She will be missed by so many South Australians, Australians and horse lovers worldwide. Vale, Gillian Rolton.

Ms COOK (Fisher) (16:09): I rise to thank Gillian Rolton for her service to sport, her service to the community and, in particular, to the southern community as a resident of Clarendon. Gillian was a long-term resident of the seat of Fisher. I believe that Eden Hills, where she grew up as a child, probably sat within that or close to that.

I also would like to mention that many people have mentioned to me how wonderful Gillian Rolton was as a teacher at Reynella Primary School, which is also in my electorate. Having witnessed her husband, Greg, as the deputy principal at Aberfoyle Park High School, I know how terrific he is as well with young people, so I can only imagine the benefits for all the young people who have come into contact with Gillian as a riding teacher in her riding school. I wish to place on record my thanks as the local member for their service to the community. Vale, Gillian Rolton.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (16:10): I first met Gillian England in 1984. As members would know, before I came into this place I had a veterinary practice at Happy Valley/Chandler's Hill. It was a mixed practice, where I did a lot of cattle work and small animal work, but particularly a lot of horse work, and one of my clients was Gillian England, later to become Gill Rolton.

Gill was a very good friend of mine and we spent many hours together—very early mornings and very late nights sometimes with horses that were unwell. Not many people get to stick a hose up the nose of a gold medal-winning Olympic horse. I had the pleasure of doing that, so to speak, and rasping Fred's teeth—all the sorts of things that you have to do to horses—always under the watchful eye of Gill Rolton.

Gill was a very passionate horse owner, as well as a very passionate competitor, and I was pleased to be a small part of her progress up the ladder of achievements. When Greg came on the scene, I was lucky enough to be part of their celebrations when they were engaged and then married and to go to their home and have meals, but all the time the talk was all about horses—what we could do, where we could go and how we could improve the performance of the horses. Gill was always looking for different ways to improve not only her own performance but more particularly the performance of her horses.

As a vet, you get to become very close to your patients. You know how your patients behave, you know their temperaments and you know how they will behave when you are doing things they do not always appreciate, but you also get to be very close to the families of your patients because those patients are, in many cases, part of the human family.

In Gill's case, in many ways the horses were her surrogate children and very close to her. I know the sacrifices that Gill made to be able to be on the world stage in the end. That ladder she climbed was built on hours and hours of fundraising and hours and hours of dedicated hard work looking after her horses and looking after all the equestrian groups in South Australia. She will always be remembered by the thousands of people who knew her.

Yesterday, there were over 1,000 people at her funeral. I know that there were kids in their jodhpurs and she would have been very proud that those kids were there hoping one day to emulate her performance. There were many people whom I knew as clients in my vet practice and who had benefited from Gill's expertise and knowledge in becoming better horse owners and horse riders themselves. It gives me great pleasure to be a very small part of that whole picture, but 99.999 per cent of that was due to Gill's perseverance, persistence and dedication not just to her horses but to the whole sport.

Greg is a wonderful guy. Not long ago, he asked me to be on stand-by when their golden retriever was due to whelp and have pups. Fortunately, she whelped seven healthy pups. They are now going on to give other people's lives as much pleasure as they gave Gill. I was with Gill in the hospice's palliative care when the pups were born and we watched a video that Greg had sent us about the pups. I know that gave Gill a lot of pleasure because, again, like her horses, her dog was a big part of her life.

To see her go the way she did and as early as she did was a tragedy not only personally for Gill but also for the entire South Australian horse fraternity. Her husband, Greg, has certainly shown a lot of courage to continue the way he has. I will catch up with him in the next few weeks to make sure that he is able to continue to be the person he is—that is, a great South Australian. To have been part of Gill's life for many years, to be able to contribute in the way we have and to now appreciate what she has done for South Australia I think is a great thing for all of us.

She was very passionate about the 3 Day Event. I remember back in the early days, when there were issues with funding, I was getting lots of phone calls, knocks on the door and emails about what was happening and where we were going. Her perseverance and that of many others has now made the event one of the highest classed events in the world and the only four-star event in the Southern Hemisphere. I hope that it continues not only to be part of Gill's legacy but also part of the legacy we have for the development of sport, the experience industry, in South Australia.

To Greg and all those who knew Gill, I am feeling your hurt, feeling your pain and feeling your loss. Certainly, South Australia has lost a great South Australian.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (16:16): I also rise to add my thoughts to this condolence motion for Gillian Rolton. I first met Gill back in the 1990s. One thing about Gill was that, for everything people saw of her at the Olympics, she had bravery, courage and strength off the horse as much as she had it on the horse. She was a great person to break down some of the barriers.

People involved in the equestrian world are a little bit different. I know as a journalist that they were not always that easy to get to and deal with because a lot of times there are factions within the horse and equestrian industry. Gill broke those down and was determined to make sure that she reached out from the equestrian world to engage with the media, members of parliament and sponsors to ensure that there was a really high level of credibility about the entire sport, in particular the Australian International 3 Day Event held in the Adelaide Parklands each year.

When Gill took over the running of the event 10 years ago, it really stepped up and turned into a four-star event. The communication between government and the event improved as well. Instead of having five or six people with 10 different views coming to see us, Gillian channelled everything and brought it to us in a coherent and well thought-out way. The entire sport owes her a great deal of gratitude for the things that she did outside the arena as much as inside. No-one will ever forget her great achievements in 1992 and in 1996 in the Olympics, particularly in Atlanta, when she had a nasty fall and Peppermint Grove brought her home, and she was standing there with her arm in a sling receiving her very well-deserved gold medal.

I saw a different side of Gill as well. She would ring me when I was at the ABC to ask me to cover an event—and it might have been at Wirrina or her beloved Reynella horse trials—and film high-calibre state and national level competitors who were competing in Adelaide. It was always a pleasure to do that. We would go out there, and there was someone with two gold medals to her name cleaning up things, making sure the canteen was run properly, putting up jumps and doing all those things. No job was too small for Gill Rolton despite the great acclaim that she had right around the world.

Something that is probably not appreciated by people in South Australia is the huge respect people still have for Gill and have had in the past decade or so because she was one of the top judges in the world. She attended all the major events right around the world and was involved as a judge. The FEI, the equestrian federation based in Lausanne in Switzerland, had their doors open for her at all time. From the president down, she was so highly regarded.

We have lost a great Olympian, a great administrator and a great international horse judge. We are all much less because Gill is no longer with us. I pass on my condolences to Greg and all Gill's family. She is an amazing woman, and I think it is up to everyone who has anything to do with the three-day event to make sure that Gill's legacy lives on in a strong three-day event that just keeps getting better.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (16:20): I rise to speak on Gillian Rolton OAM. She was a great South Australian of great distinction. Yesterday, I attended the state service at a fitting location, Victoria Park, the home of the three-day international equestrian event. Her love of the sport was only matched by the love of the horse. Gillian's competitive spirit was to deal with the next hurdle. It was textbook. It was clinical. It was a success story on and off the stadium course.

As a young man, I vividly remember watching Gillian and her team in Barcelona and then the infamous Atlanta Olympics. Gillian rode like she owned the world. She was fearless. She was determined. She rode through adversity. She rode to gold. Having met Gillian many times in my previous role as shadow minister for sport, Gillian showed how one person's determination could succeed in all elements of sport. Her legacy, as a deserving member of the Hall of Fame, and her driving force at the three-day international equestrian event will live on with her name attached. Gillian, our thoughts are with you. Our thoughts are with your husband, Greg, and your family.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (16:21): Gillian Rolton was an inspiring and kind person and hearing yesterday how she lived her ambitions and dreams reminded me of my own horsey longings as a girl, reading every book I could but not ever getting a horse. I have actually broken a collarbone off a horse in far less salubrious circumstances, of course, so I know a little of the pain Gillian experienced on that amazing Olympic round.

I loved going to the old Gawler three-day event and the show and I attended the Adelaide three-day event for its very first time and subsequently to that. I even had the chance once to represent the minister at the opening cocktail evening and rub shoulders with all the international horsey people, which was almost as good as being with the horses if you think about it.

Gillian's kindness was also legendary and she unhesitatingly sent me one of Fred's shoes and a signed photo when I asked for it. Our condolences go to Greg, all his family and Gillian's family and to her friends, especially Felicity-ann Lewis (nee Cook), Juli Sharpe (nee Curtis) and Jackie Blyth (nee Stuart), the Marion girls, who truly were best friends forever and who must have lots of stories to tell. They spent hours together in the school library, and we know what they were doing now. I am told that it was Juli who was horsey, too, while Jackie and Felicity were not. What drew them all together, though, was the love of the great outdoors and surfing—halcyon teenage days that bound them together forever.

Motion carried by members standing in their places in silence.

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