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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-11-17 Daily Xml
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Sir Richard Williams Commemoration

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (16:01): I rise today to celebrate with this house a wonderful event that was held in Moonta recently, that event being the unveiling of the statue to commemorate Sir Richard Williams, the father of the RAAF. Sir Richard now sits proudly in Queen Square, Moonta, and will be there for quite some time, commemorated in a wonderful statue of him sitting on a bench with a plaque next to it explaining his contribution to our wonderful state and country.

From the outset, I would like to congratulate Robyn Knight, a local lady prominent in the National Trust branch at Moonta and a local historian, who did an outstanding job fundraising for this statue. This has been a long-term project for her. She has worked tirelessly to try to raise funds, which ended up being some $75,000, to make this dream a reality, and she has been toiling away at it for quite some time.

It was particularly pleasing for me. I made a small donation, as my grandfather was an extraordinary advocate of the contribution that Sir Richard Williams made and I know he would be extremely proud to see him commemorated at Moonta. I made a small donation on his behalf and participated in a number of other fundraising initiatives that Robyn instigated. It was also particularly pleasing that, thanks to the intervention of the Premier, this government was able to contribute some $26,000 towards the cost of the statue and plaque to ensure that it was up there and presentable over the weekend. Thank you very much to the government and congratulations to Robyn Knight on fundraising such an extraordinary amount.

As I said, it has been Robyn's long-term ambition. I know she would like to have it done sooner, but it was wonderfully fitting that the statue was unveiled in the centenary of the Air Force. As members of this house may know, Sir Richard was quite literally the father of the RAAF. He was the person who advocated for a third arm of the military, an Air Force arm rather than the Air Force and planes being part of the Navy and Infantry. Without Sir Richard, we would not have an Air Force. I know the community of Moonta is very proud.

The event coincided with the centenary of the Air Force and was wonderfully well attended. It was a multi-part event, the first being a show in the park next to the statue and its unveiling, at which we were graced by the presence of new Governor, Frances Adamson, who did the honours of unveiling the statue. There were quite difficult conditions on the day. It was quite windy, with the microphone picking up a fair bit of feedback, but the new Governor did a sterling job addressing the crowd in one of her first engagements and then, with the help of some students from the Moonta Area School, unveiling the statue. Also unveiled on the day was a plaque that goes a long way to explaining the contribution Sir Richard made to the state.

Following that, we had a lunch for invited guests in the RSL, which was again a wonderful event, with the Air Force quartet playing their instruments and serenading us during a wonderful lunch, prepared by volunteers from the community, and again some tremendous speakers on that day. For their final stop, the crowd then proceeded to the Moonta Mines Uniting Church, which is a wonderful church and a truly ornate place to visit.

As I said, I would like to congratulate Robyn Knight, who did a sterling job, but many others were involved as well. I know the National Trust Moonta branch had a prominent role. Stephen Stock and everyone there made sure that this project came to fruition and made sure that it was well attended on the day.

The show in the park was a wonderful event. It was made a bit difficult by some of the COVID restrictions that were in place. They had this peculiar set-up, where invited guests could be seated and listen to the speakers and then there was a fence some eight to 10 metres around the outside of us for everyone else to crowd around and watch the proceedings take place. It was a rather extraordinary and unusual circumstance, but nonetheless it was a really well attended event.

People appeared to come from far and wide to see Sir Richard Williams finally commemorated in Queen Square, Moonta, prominently on the corner there and available for many generations to come to sit down with him, read about his achievements and get a photo with the statue of Sir Richard. I know the community is very proud of Sir Richard, and he now has a prominent place in the town and long may he stay there. Congratulations, Robyn Knight, and everyone who was involved in fundraising for this tremendous statue.

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