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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-03-18 Daily Xml
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Waite Electorate

Mr DULUK (Waite) (15:54): Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the $3.5 million Sturt River Linear Park upgrade, a new shared-use trial in Coromandel Valley, with long-term plans to stretch the trail, that shared use bike path, from Coromandel Valley all the way to the coast at Glenelg. At this stage, it connects the existing path near the institute building, the old institute building on Main Road, Coromandel Valley. It continues through Horner's Bridge, which people in my community will know is such a historically important bridge along Murrays Hill Road.

This trail is a fantastic resource for the local community and, really importantly, it is wheelchair friendly and accessible and naturally bike and animal friendly as well. I was joined last Friday by the Deputy Premier, the member for Bragg; the Mayor of the City of Onkaparinga, Erin Thompson; and the Mayor of the City of Mitcham, Dr Heather Holmes-Ross, at the opening and the cutting of the ribbon on the bike path. It was great to be there with so many residents. It was quite telling that, during the ribbon-cutting, I think we had quite a few cyclists and quite a few dog walkers coming through for what was a very eventful and community-focused opening at the Sturt River Linear Park.

Mr Speaker, as you know, Coromandel Valley is a beautiful nature-filled environment. It is really fantastic to see this important green project in our community underway. I certainly look forward to working with both the City of Onkaparinga and Mitcham in convincing the City of Marion and the City of Holdfast Bay to extend that linear park all the way through to their council areas.

What is so good about the opening of a project like the Sturt River Linear Park project is how community is involved. It was great to see members from the Coromandel Valley National Trust in attendance, led by Trevor Conlon, Brian Thoman and so many other members. They are so passionate about the local history of their community, the history of Coromandel Valley and how that suburb came to be and how the linear park will provide not only an environmental benefit for nature walkers and the like but also the story of the history of the suburb, which is so important. It was a wonderful local achievement for the community last week, and I once again thank the Deputy Premier for visiting the electorate of Waite.

I recently attended the official sod-turn at Women's Memorial Playing Field. There was quite a plethora of members of parliament there from the local area, and it was great to see the members for Elder, Davenport and Boothby and the minister and the local mayor from Mitcham. This is a $9.2 million state government project on what is quite an important piece of sporting infrastructure in our state not only for the clubs that use it—the Sturt Lacrosse Club and Cumberland United Women's Football Club—but also for the history of the Women's Memorial Playing Fields.

It is a piece of land that was set aside by former Premier Tonkin as a memorial to Australian nurses who were massacred at Bangka Island in 1942. It is a living war memorial. Not only does it have a presence as a memorial, but every time sport is played on that field it is a living memorial. It is part of a $9.2 million development. I think the most exciting part of the development will be the new women's memorial itself.

It has been a real honour to work with the Women's Memorial Playing Fields Trust over the many years that I have been the local member. Congratulations to Bruce Parker OAM, the former president of the trust, Helen Fischer, the current president, and April Williams for really ensuring that the trust's vision, as part of the redevelopment, has been heard and has been seen by the department and will come to fruition. The new development will have great historic importance for the community and also the two sporting clubs involved.

Recently, consultation has begun on the $20 million Mitcham Hills road corridor upgrade. Once again, this is looking at key transport bottlenecks in my community, and I have long been advocating for funding to fix these problems. I am so glad to see that work is beginning on those intersections at Belair triangle and then on the James Road, Old Belair Road intersection. Something I will be very mindful of as the development occurs is the need to ensure that we balance road safety and environmental protection, ensuring that significant trees are protected as the proposed road rollout and safety improvements are worked on. It is a really good local road funding announcement for the community and something I know will benefit motorists, commuters, bike riders, pedestrians and the environment over time.

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