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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-09-17 Daily Xml
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Waite Electorate

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (15:35): On Saturday 6 September, I had the honour of joining the Friends of Belair National Park for their 40th birthday celebrations. It was a fabulous afternoon tea and awards celebration at Main Pavilion in Belair. At the awards, the Mayor of Mitcham and myself reflected on our connection to the park. Between the two of us, not only did we grow up down the road from the park but we actually grew up across the road from each other, so we had a lot of the same reflections. We talked a little bit about how going into the park as a young person provided a place of sanctuary, a place of peace and often somewhere where you might run away to.

It was lovely to join all the members of the Friends of Belair. They have given so much over the last 40 years. They are out all the time, whether they are weeding, whether they are conserving, whether they are planting, whether they are educating or even taking bush walks. They continue to give so much, and we thoroughly appreciate all the work they do. The event itself was attended by quite a number of the volunteers as well as representatives from the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

I was proud to present the service awards to many of the members, including Dene Cordes and Christine Stanley, who chalked up 40 years, so they have been members the whole time that the group has been functioning. In particular, Dene Cordes actually wrote the book on Belair National Park. The book is called The park at Belair: a social history of the people whose struggles and vision gave South Australia the National Parks and Wildlife Service we cherish today. With only 1,000 copies, of which I am very proud to have one, it was lovely to see him honoured in this way. Christine Stanley has also given 40 years to the Friends of Parks, and she continues to do such a wonderful job in that space.

Life membership was also given to Craig Baulderstone, one of my neighbours, and I spoke about him previously today. Craig and his family have given so much to the national park with the work that they have done every year, every day. They have a beautiful section of the park that they look after and you really notice the work that is done there. Across the park, through all the different areas that they look after, they really take the time to make sure the park is protected, that the park's staff have got the support they need to look after things like noxious weeds and conservation. I thank all the members of the Friends of Belair for their work over the years.

The weekend was particularly busy in my electorate, and on Saturday morning I joined our fantastic Belair National Park parkrun volunteers. I was placed as a marshal on the teardrop, which sometimes we call the lonely teardrop, although it is not lonely because over 200 people run past and you get to cheer them on as they go. It is always fantastic to see our community out together, enjoying themselves, exercising and starting the weekend off well. The Coromandel Valley Rotary plant sale was also on at the Waite Street Reserve. That is such a well-attended event and, with spring just around the corner or here already, it was incredibly busy with lots of people buying all the plants they need to get their gardens up and running.

From there, the Upper Sturt Soldiers Memorial Hall had their art show. That was a fantastic event organised by Georgia McDonnell. She has done some fantastic things for the Upper Sturt community and I wish her well in her efforts to become a new councillor with the Adelaide Hills Council. There were some incredible pieces of artwork at the art show from the Upper Sturt Primary School. The year 6s had done some great work, including a couple of beetles that I was quite interested in and may well have put a red sticker on, so well done to all of the students there.

From there I got to celebrate a 70th birthday with one of our locals, and after that I was really happy to represent the Minister for Multicultural Affairs as well as Tourism at the Malaysian night market, the pasar malam, which was just a fantastic collection of food trucks as well as craft and all sorts of other things. There was great entertainment and just incredible food, but also incredible culture. It was really lovely to see so many people come together, both the Malaysian community and also the community more broadly, to celebrate not only the Malaysian culture and Malaysian food, but also our multicultural state and how great it is.

Finally, on Sunday we had our 'thank our first responders' barbecue, where we invited first responders from all over our community. The interchurch council had organised these little thankyou cards, and we presented them to our first responders. It was a lovely thing to be a part of, to make sure we show how much we appreciate our first responders and that we thank them. I cannot thank the interchurch council enough for helping me organise that event.

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