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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-09-23 Daily Xml
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Chaffey Electorate

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:36): Today I rise to talk about the most recent sporting and school events in Chaffey. Firstly, I would like to congratulate everyone involved in the Riverland Primary Schools' Music Festival, this year celebrating its 25th anniversary. The concert was held at the Chaffey Theatre over three days. The performances were absolutely outstanding and I was pleased to be able to attend. It was wonderful to see so many of my Riverland schools involved. I would like to mention those involved as follows:

Berri Primary School;

Moorook Primary School;

Cobdogla Primary School;

Monash Primary and Preschool;

Renmark West Primary School;

Riverland Special School;

Barmera Primary School;

Kingston-on-Murray Primary School;

Ramco Primary School;

Waikerie Lutheran Primary School;

Waikerie Primary School;

Rivergum Christian College;

Loxton Primary School;

Loxton Lutheran School;

Our Lady of the River School;

Renmark North Primary School;

St Albert's Catholic School; and

Loxton North School.

Following the Riverland concert series, a small group participated with 1,500 other students from across South Australia at the Entertainment Centre representing the Riverland choir. I would like to mention and thank the dedicated teachers and volunteers who put so much work, so much extra effort and so many extra hours into ensuring the concerts were a success. It is an absolute credit to them.

I would also like to give a big shout-out to the Riverland regional coordinator, Joanna Whitehead, who does an outstanding job in leading the concerts and making sure each year is a special event. So much work goes into the concerts, especially given the circumstances at the moment dealing with COVID-19 compliance. The students all enjoyed performing, but without the commitment of Joanna the concerts probably would not go ahead. I know that at the Chaffey Theatre after the concert had finished, many of the children came running out, as they now have to wait for their parents outside, and their faces of joy and fulfilment really did speak volumes in those young primary school students, accomplishing what is a great event.

Of course, I want to talk about finals time in the Riverland with winter sports. This year's finals were made even more special because many of the sporting codes have had to adhere to COVID rules with COVID plans and the situation that we saw last year with the cancellation of many of our sporting codes and final series in 2020 has been overcome this year.

It was great to get out to the independent football final at Paruna. We saw Ramco get up and win—a great outcome by the Ramco Roosters. It was also the RFLW, the women's league, which saw Berri get up and win. It was just a great outcome for women's football and women's football sport in general. I was also lucky enough to attend the RFL finals down at Tigerland in Loxton. It was great to see a raft players, not only the juniors, playing a really good standard of football. Renmark was successful in the under 13s and Barmera won the under 15s.

In the under 18s, the Senior Colts, Berri was successful. What I was really astounded by was the quality and skill level of football, particularly in the B and A-grades. Renmark was good enough to win both those grades. Loxton put on a great spectacle with their new facility, the mezzanine level in their new facility at Loxton Oval. It was also great to witness Renmark becoming back-to-back premiers and to witness a large crowd that was COVID compliant. Everyone was sitting around the outside the oval to watch their beloved teams get up.

I would also like to congratulate the girls in the netball finals, also held in Loxton, when Renmark took out the A-grade finals, which was great. Renmark really did have quite a finals series. Renmark Olympic Soccer Club remained undefeated against Loxton. Clearly, it was a good year for Renmark; however, the Barmera Pelicans women's team was successful in beating Renmark 3-0. In hockey, Loxton won another premiership after beating Waikerie 3-2. It was a great night. In the A-grade women's, Renmark was able to get up over Berri 1-0.

I would like to congratulate everyone who was involved in winter sports in the Riverland and Mallee in all sporting codes. Most of those involved were volunteers and donated hundreds of hours to these clubs to make sure these final series were a success. The local sporting clubs and associations all rely on volunteers. They all rely on the support of their local communities and it was a great display of community friendship.

Time expired.

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