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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-20 Daily Xml
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Colton Electorate

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (15:25): I rise today to update the house on the happenings in Colton since the new year has begun. As I have previously mentioned here on multiple occasions, the electorate of Colton is certainly a very happening place over the summertime, and I am pleased to have this opportunity to highlight some of the fantastic events and community efforts that have kickstarted 2020 in the western suburbs.

In January, I was lucky enough to attend the Holdfast Bay and Charles Sturt Australia Day citizenship ceremonies. As always, it was exciting to see some of our newest Australians joining us for a fantastic celebration of their entry as citizens of Australia. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome them all to our fantastic western suburbs.

Kickstarting February, our surf lifesaving clubs head into full swing with their two major annual fundraising events with the first being the Big Row, hosted by the Henley Surf Life Saving Club. It took place on 1 February this year and it was a fantastic event. As I said, it is a major fundraising event for the club in terms of securing funds for the upgrade of their surf club, which happened a number of years ago. Every year they traverse the crossing from Stansbury to Henley Beach over a number of hours.

There is certainly a huge effort from the rowing teams, and this year required a bigger effort than most as the weather and conditions on the day were not quite as expected and a few interesting techniques were put in place as they rowed over to Henley from Stansbury. As always, the number of life members and others within the Henley Beach Surf Life Saving Club welcoming the rowers as they came up the beach was a fantastic sight to see, and a significant portion of funds were raised for the Henley Beach Surf Life Saving Club.

Also, we had the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club Pink and Blue Swim, which raises money to support breast and prostate cancer causes—a personal favourite of mine. It gives me an opportunity each and every year to jump back into the water and have a bit of a swim. It does not happen as much as it probably should these days. The surf club broke an amazing record in terms of their attendance and participation this year, with over a thousand people taking part in the fundraising event.

You have the opportunity to swim a short distance, a longer distance or to take a walk. I noted that this year the Premier chose to walk rather than swim. I am sure we will see that change, hopefully, in years to come. It was a fantastic effort by the surf club and the subcommittee of the surf club that look after that event. They should be incredibly proud. The now vast sums of money that have been raised for prostate and breast cancer over the journey of that event is immense. Each and every time they thank their sponsors, including the West End foundation which matches dollar for dollar the funds raised, so it is an incredibly important event.

The Bulgarian Educational and Friendly Society hosted their annual Zdravei Bulgarian Festival—a wonderful celebration of their food, culture and music. It has grown over the last number of years. They have fantastic clubrooms off Tapleys Hill Road in Fulham Gardens. Each and every year it is well adorned with trees and greenery from one of their sponsors, and the number of people attending that event in our local area continues to grow. Again, well done to the volunteers and the subcommittee of that fantastic club. I look forward to many more years of celebrating that Bulgarian festival in our local area.

We also had the St Michael's College academic assembly where they acknowledged the outstanding achievements of their class of 2019. It was a very impressive class, as so many students achieved excellence in their ATARs—whether that be over 95 or over 99. It was certainly a very successful year for them, and we wish them all the very best in their future endeavours within our state.

I also recently had the opportunity to go down to the Toy Boys workshop off Military Road. They do a fantastic job building wooden children's toys for a vast number of charities, both in the local area and more broadly across South Australia. Recently, they were recognised by the local council in the Australia Day Awards for their distribution days. They build these toys from January to November every year and then have the opportunity to distribute them to a number of charities in the local area at a celebration just before Christmas. It is an incredible group, which has just recently moved into the Colton electorate and set up at the old Henley council depot on Military Road, and we are very thankful to have them join us.

It is a great start to the year. There is much more to look forward to and, as always, I am very thankful to have the opportunity to work for the great people of Colton.

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