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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-08 Daily Xml
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Kernewek Lowender Copper Coast Cornish Festival

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (16:02): I rise today to speak about the Kernewek Lowender, and I am proudly wearing my Cornish tartan tie to signify the occasion. I note that it was held recently, between 17 and 23 May, on the Copper Coast and celebrate its wonderful success yet again, despite the fact it was subject to some trying circumstances, which I will touch on later.

The first Kernewek Lowender was held in 1973, which means the next one in 2023 will be the 50th year of the Kernewek Lowender and a very exciting milestone indeed. I doubt whether those involved in the inaugural one could have ever foreseen the size of the event that it was to become. I am led to believe that it was started thanks in no small part to a $1,000 grant gifted by former Premier Don Dunstan. That was its leg up and what got it going, and since then it has gone on to great heights.

I do not know how big the field is—I suspect it is rather small—but I am led to believe that the Cornish festival on the Copper Coast, the Kernewek Lowender, is the biggest Cornish festival outside Cornwall itself and attracts a large crowd every second year when it is hosted at Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta.

This year was particularly special. It got started on the Tuesday with Dressing the Graves, and that evening there was one of my favourite events, the Kernewek art prize, which always attracts a wonderful quality of local art contributions. I am not much of an art afficionado myself, but I do enjoy local art shows and getting to see the quality of the artists we have in our local communities. This year was no exception. This year, the winner was a local artist by the name of Georgia Ivens, who is a tremendous local artist. She is extraordinarily talented, and we will see a lot of great work from her going forward. I congratulate her on her wonderful piece.

That piece struck a bit of a chord with me. It depicted a road scene on the way between Kadina and Adelaide. It really was wonderful. If the Kernewek committee did not keep all the winning prizes, I certainly would have liked to purchase that one to place in my office considering the sheer number of calls we get about roads there. That was a wonderful piece. Congratulations to Georgia and best of luck to her going forward.

We had further Dressing the Graves events on Tuesday, Wednesday and then a few other events on the Thursday, but the official opening was on the Friday. It was tremendous to welcome His Excellency the Governor Hieu Van Le to Moonta to officially open the event, as well as Steph Lysaght from the British High Commission, who was a guest speaker.

It was held at the Moonta football oval. which was a return back to the future because the early ones were held there. It was wonderful to see the oval compound and it really gave it a sense of being full. The previous ones have been held in the Moonta main street, which is a wonderful thing for the local traders, but the Moonta footy oval with the enclosed compound to satisfy COVID rules really gave it the appearance of being a full event.

We did the furry dance and the maypole again. For the second time in a row, we did the pastie bake-off in which I was honoured to be a competitor and, for the second time in a row, I managed to slice my thumb open and get blood all through the pastie. But thankfully no-one had to taste it as it was judged on appearances only. Somehow, and I am not quite sure how, we were not judged the winner this year. That honour went to Mayor Ros Talbot. Congratulations to her.

Saturday was the street party at Wallaroo, which again had to be fenced in this year. It was sponsored by the Bond Store and Derek and Nicole Matthewman, who are wonderful local business owners. The Kernewek Cup was held at Wallaroo with Kadina versus Wallaroo on Saturday. It was really pleasing to play a part in that game, although it was a complicated result this year. Ordinarily, the winner is gifted a donation from law firm Jones Harley Toole. This year we drew—Kadina and Wallaroo—so both were recipients of a small gift from that wonderful firm. It was really well hosted by the Wallaroo footy club on Saturday.

Then the cavalcade of cars was held on Sunday, which was a tremendous effort. I am led to believe there were a record number of entries with over 700 cars. Congratulations to the president of the Kernewek committee, Lynn Spurling; the CEO, Di McDowell, in her first Kernewek Lowender—she did an excellent job—finance officer, Gabby Jackman; and everyone else who was involved in the organisation.

It was a tricky year this year. As I have already said, the COVID rules made it quite onerous for the organisers and there really were some peculiar rules that the organisers had to contend with. For example, those participating in the cavalcade of cars had to do their COVID check-in when they got into the car with the two or three other people max. Then when they had travelled the length of the car journey with those two or three other people remaining the same and got to the staging area, they had to do another check-in. That held up some of those old cars which overheated and dropped oil on the road. It meant that when quite a few cars got to the staging area, they could not get in because by that time those old cars had run out of puff.

There were a few other ones. The gates at Moonta oval, where there was one entry and one exit, became quite onerous for some older people who did not want to walk the length of the oval. Unfortunately, some of those COVID rules—while they have been great for the state and have kept us nice and safe and we certainly appreciate the work that the public health experts have done—were quite onerous and, in some cases, a bit confusing. Congratulations to the Kernewek committee on the excellent job they did. It is looking forward to the 50th year of Kernewek in 2023.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I call the Attorney, being of Cornish heritage myself, I would like to congratulate the member for Narungga and compliment him on his tie today, which is the Cornish national tartan, I believe. Well done.

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