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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-13 Daily Xml
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Waite Electorate

Mr DULUK (Waite) (15:56): I rise today to talk a little bit about the happenings in the electorate of Waite. From the local sporting teams and their recent successes to activities of our community groups, Waite is thriving at the moment in autumn. One place that is exceptionally colourful and busy at the moment is the Wittunga Botanic Garden.

It was a pleasure to attend the official playground opening a few short weeks ago with the Minister for Environment and Water, Minister Speirs; Isobel Redmond, former member for Heysen in her capacity as a board member of the Board of the Botanic Gardens; members of Friends of the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and the Blackwood Action Group; and the hardworking team of the gardens led by senior horticultural curator, Evan Brougham.

This was part of the $750,000 investment in Wittunga, which has seen the new nature playground established along with a new entrance and greeting signs for visitors. What has been really fantastic about the new nature playground is that it was designed in collaboration with students from Blackwood Primary School, which is right across the road.

Another important resident who was at the opening was Nan Davies. Nan Davies no longer lives in Blackwood because she has moved to smaller accommodation in Marion. She was a long-term resident of Sherbourne Road in Blackwood and has been a long-time campaigner for making Wittunga a more accessible and friendly place. Nan was there and she was extremely delighted to see such fantastic happenings in her beloved Wittunga Botanic Garden. I look forward to enjoying the new gardens with many members of the community. I also look forward to the new trails and, of course, the new viewing platform around the lake beach as well.

A group that is especially colourful in the community that I would like to recognise is our scouting community. It was a real pleasure to be with Chief Commissioner Jan Turbill at the Belair Scout Group a couple of Fridays ago and to be part of the Queen's Scout Award for three fantastic young members of our community: Tom Runge, Caitlin Selge and Mark Rogers. These young South Australians and young members of our community have received this fantastic award and have met the requirements to be meritorious in receiving the Queen's Scout Award.

It was a real honour to be there that evening at the Belair Scout Group. It is a real family feeling there at Scouts. Tom, Caitlin and Mark had parents, siblings, cousins and grandparents all involved in scouting as well. Scouts do make a fantastic contribution to our community, no more so than in our community every year at the youth vigil at the Blackwood Soldiers War Memorial. Once again, all members of scouts from Belair to Flagstaff Hill and Eden Hills to Blackwood were involved in the ANZAC Day Youth Vigil, which is to be commended as the event did not happen last year. Well done to Nicola Capon, who is Scout leader at Belair, and everyone involved in the Queen's Scout Award presentation evening.

I would also like to recognise some smart, bright young people from our community who are recipients of the C.A.S. Hawker Scholarship. Two are former graduates from St John's Grammar School and they are Oliver Douglas from the Class of '18 and Ben Ransom from the Class of '19, who have each won a $60,000 residential scholarship to St Mark's College while completing their studies at the University of Adelaide.

More than 223 students applied for the 2021 scholarship, with only three students being selected each year. Both Ben and Oliver are academic high-flyers who achieved numerous year 12 merits and awards while also participating fully in school life, from action groups to leadership roles, school captaincy, sporting endeavours and performances. Ben was a finalist in the young achiever category of the Australian innovation awards and also the lead trombone in the Superband as part of the national Generations in Jazz competition.

In 2017, I was glad to develop a personal relationship with Ollie, who did work experience in my office, and I know that Ollie went on to do a traineeship in the member for Kavel's office in 2019. I thank the member for Kavel for accompanying both Ollie and Ben to the presentation awards with His Excellency the Governor Hieu Van Le AC just last week. We know both students will continue to soar in their tertiary studies, with Ben undertaking a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery and Ollie completing a Bachelor of Arts and Law at the University of Adelaide. I cannot wait to see what they achieve in our community and in our great state.

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