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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-03 Daily Xml
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Chaffey Electorate

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:18): Boy, has it been a busy Easter ANZAC break-up in Chaffey! It gives me great pleasure to let everyone know that the Karoonda Farm Fair was back on after a significant break. For two days at Karoonda there were many thousands of people who streamed into the Karoonda Farm Fair. They were able to get a real taste of what a country fair is all about. Karoonda is obviously in the Mallee. What I was able to witness there was nothing short of a miraculous recovery for a small country show. I want to commend the committee and the coordination group for such a fantastic event.

I will pay tribute to the president, Robin Hood, and Janine Dutschke, Lynette Bald, Sonja Marchant, Wade Boughen and Gerry Paay for their great work. Yes, I entered jam, and I came away successful with three awards. I would urge everyone in this chamber to go out and support your country shows and local fairs because it is important that local members contribute and have some form of competitive spirit when entering a jam, a preserve or some culinary delight.

Of course, the Riverland has experienced significant hardship with the floods and the high-flow events. Over Easter, it was great to see people starting to visit the Riverland. The environment is looking absolutely magnificent. The region is welcoming all those people who want to come up and have a look at what the floods have meant not only to our environment but to all the nature viewing options, to go up to some of those lookouts and have a look at the benefits of what a flood has meant. It has been a great boost to the local economy. I urge people to get onto and get ready for round 2 of the voucher program. Put your name forward and make sure you come up and visit.

There was the Dash 4 Cash. Despite a delayed start due to the floods, we saw hundreds line the River Murray on Friday and Saturday evenings to see one of the Riverland's most iconic events return. We saw the Riverland Dinghy Club return with the Dash 4 Cash and the Dinghy Derby. It is a great spectacle for people to come up and have a look at these little aluminium rockets that make their way up the river and into the creek network. It is all on a time trial. There was a lot of fun to be had, and it is a great spectacle.

Congratulations to all those teams who were successful. Congratulations to Scott Jenke, the club president; Jeremy Newman; and secretary/treasurer Sue Jenke, who has been an absolute stalwart keeping that club going and moving along. I also congratulate the committee members: Cody Richards, Shaun Jenke, Reece Yard, Shane Pitman, Joel Woodrow, Ben Pilgrim, Nathan Burgess, Lisa Richards, Tony Richards, Ty Wagenknecht and Kelvin John. It is a great community event, and it draws people from all over the country to come up and experience the river and the creek networks.

Destination Riverland and Murray River Trails recently represented the region at the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards in Sydney. They were both finalists. They did not come away with prizes, but well done to all those groups that make up a great tourism offering up in the Riverland. At last year's SA Tourism Awards, Destination Riverland won gold in tourism marketing and Murray River Trails won gold in the ecotourism category, which automatically qualified them to go to the national awards. Well done. The Riverland does have great tourism offerings.

Looking at the most recent Tennis SA Awards, congratulations to the Renmark Tintra Lawn Tennis Club. They were awarded the most outstanding rural tennis club award on Saturday evening at the Tennis SA Gala Dinner. The award recognised the wide variety of programs the club has on offer, and that inclusivity is a key focus for the club, catering for players of all levels, both social and competitive. It was great to see. A big shout-out to John Pick, who has been one of the great stalwarts of the Tintra tennis club, as well as the Berri Tennis Club, which was also a finalist.

I was there to help open the 18th National Caravan Clubs Rally at the field day site. It was great to see that site packed out with caravans and people from all over the country coming to enjoy the hospitality of the Riverland. As well, the 2023 Riverland Auto Street Party was a great event. Being a bit of a petrolhead myself, it was great to see so many custom cars and street cars come together at Barmera. It was great to see that the group, the Riverland Auto Street Party committee, raised $7,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, a great initiative and a great cause. It has been a busy time in Chaffey. I urge everyone to come up and help our economy recover after the floods because it is a really good place to visit.

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