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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-17 Daily Xml
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National Volunteer Week

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:23): I rise to speak today during National Volunteer Week and on Wear Orange Wednesday, a day when we can thank all SES volunteers who generously give their time to their communities, but in the shadow of what has been an incredibly testing week for the communities of the West Coast.

I would like to firstly give my utmost sympathy to the friends and family of the victim of the tragic event at Walkers Rock near Elliston last weekend. Out of respect for the family's wishes for privacy I will not say any more, apart from that our hearts do really hurt for all of you.

The communities of Elliston and Eyre Peninsula have been rocked by this event. Although we inherently know how dangerous waters can be on Eyre Peninsula, and indeed in South Australia, it is always an incredible shock when a tragic event like this happens. The community of Elliston and surrounds are a close-knit community, and this has been a devastating event, having lost a very well-loved and amazing person in such a horrific way. My thoughts are with them all at this time, especially those at the Elliston Area School dealing with the loss of a teacher and work colleague and those who were in the water and in the vicinity at the time.

I speak of this on this day to recognise the work of our community, volunteering and giving of themselves in times of immense challenge. The work that the SES and volunteers did during the search over days was incredibly challenging. This came in the very same week when there was a six-day search for a lady missing just up the road at Streaky Bay. One event had a happy ending and one had a tragic one.

In my electorate, there is a long distance between small population centres, and thus the burden of responsibility for our community falls on all of us. Many of the volunteers who were involved in the one search were involved in the other, and I can almost guarantee that those same sorts of people were involved in the football club, the RSL, the progress association and more. I would like to publicly thank all those who were involved for giving so much of your time, effort and emotion to your community, working together because that is just what we do in regional South Australia.

I want to speak today on a positive note about something that is close to the heart of many across regional South Australia in particular, and that is country football. It has been a big start to the football season in my electorate of Flinders, an electorate that has four different football associations and 24 different teams. I would like to highlight the achievements of two individual clubs in particular: firstly, the Boston Football Club in the Port Lincoln League.

Although the Boston Tigers have had a successful juniors program through recent years, and indeed a very successful women's team as well as running their clubroom based at Poole Oval in Port Lincoln, they unfortunately had an unenviable losing streak at the start of the year of over 40 games. I am very happy to congratulate them on breaking that streak and even winning back-to-back games to start their season.

I would like to congratulate their on-field leaders: Brad Keast, their A-grade coach; and their captains, Christian Dorward and Adam Davies. I would also like to congratulate some of the other leaders at the club, people like Jason 'Chook' Fauser, Michael Paech and Tony Baj as well as many, many others. They have also been successful in gaining some funding to upgrade their facilities at Poole Oval and are working together towards a sustainable club. Country sporting clubs rely so much on volunteers for both their day-to-day and long-term operations.

I also want to speak about a club very close to my heart: the Eyre United Saints in the Great Flinders League. Their A-grade side, too, had an unenviable losing streak of over 40 games, which I am very happy to say was broken last weekend with a strong victory that sent the faithful into raptures. Congratulations to all involved in that club, especially Ben Pugsley; the Stratford boys, Brenton and Neville; Jordan Telfer; the Modra boys, Justin and Ryan; and I could go on and on.

As I have said, clubs within regional South Australia are built on volunteers spending countless hours giving back to their community, and Eyre United is a prime example of this. However, in this its 70th year since coming together, the club has made the difficult decision to explore options for merging or amalgamation in their future. I know that this decision is not one that is taken lightly, and I for one hope there is a way to continue on their club and legacy going forward, but until then, can I just say, 'Cheer, cheer the red, black and white.'

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