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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-06 Daily Xml
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Private Members' Statements

Private Members' Statements

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (15:42): I rise this afternoon to make a statement on a Kangaroo Island legend who passed away on 2 March 2024. I first met George Lonzar in 2021, when visiting Kangaroo Island during my time as South Australia's environment minister. I was able to have a cup of tea with George at his house, and he told me so many fantastic stories about his decades-long career as a park ranger on Kangaroo Island, starting that job on 17 April 1950 and working through until 1984, looking after Flinders Chase National Park, Kelly Hill Caves, Seal Bay conservation area and Cape Torrens.

At the start of his career, George was a ranger for the flora and fauna board before it became the National Parks and Wildlife Service. With little money to support improvements of the parks in those days, George played a critical role in putting in boundary fences, extensive firebreaks, a number of roads and camps and improved visitor facilities. In 1958, George's handyman skills were put to the test when he personally made 27,000 concrete bricks to build the third ranger's house, where he lived with his wife Joyce and their two children.

George played an integral part in making the Kangaroo Island national parks network what it is today. When he first began his career as a ranger in 1950 visitation was about 2,000, and when he retired it had reached 25,000 people per year.

Mayor Michael Pengilly, who knew George so well, has said that his insight into how national parks and wildlife are managed was second to none and his knowledge of how bushfires occur and how they can be managed was exceptional. George Lonzar will be missed. His knowledge and understanding of the natural world was phenomenal. It was a pleasure to be able to meet him, and I pass my sympathies on to his family. Vale, George Lonzar.

Mr FULBROOK (Playford) (15:45): When cycling in the north is discussed, it is often said that advocacy within Port Adelaide Enfield is strong and the social ride scene within the City of Salisbury is the envy of many. Over the last 18 months, I have worked with many cyclists in my community to find out how we can emulate the success of our western neighbours. This has taken me and many co-conspirators on a journey of discovery, which is now starting to bear fruit.

Under the guidance of Sam Powrie from the Port Adelaide Bicycle User Group, we have seen firsthand how they have worked with governments to improve facilities in the north-west. We are keen to adapt this model locally by setting up our very own Salisbury Bicycle User Group. While we have interest from many, we welcome anyone wanting to join us to advocate on how to improve facilities across the City of Salisbury.

To get things started, a meeting will be held on 24 March between 2pm to 4pm at the Jack Young Centre in Salisbury. No matter your ability, this is the first step in hopefully developing a blueprint by local cyclists for local cyclists. For further information or to RSVP, please give my office a call on 8250 7234. Getting to this point has been quite the journey, and I want to thank some great cycling advocates, including Jim Binder, David Elliott, Rob Carter, Jodi White, Ash Baxter and Ray Melbourne. I hope you can be there on the 24th to join them for this very important meeting.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:46): The saga of Eyre Peninsula roadworks continue. The latest episode has seen the fourth fix-up of the intersection between the Tod and Flinders highways and the western approach road coming into Port Lincoln. It is now more than two years since the original work started on these roads—years of speed limits, years of road restrictions, years of impact on businesses and individual access into properties, years of failed works. This should not simply be accepted by the department, as it is not good enough. Sadly, it looks as though there are already indications of further failing on the edge of these works again. Our community is feeling helpless.

As well as this, the department is seemingly bulldozing on with works to change key intersections along Liverpool Street in Port Lincoln, the main thoroughfare through town. The department have proposed removing the left-turn slipways on these intersections despite continued opposition from the community, including during the formal consultation process. Their concerns are about the impact this will have on daily movements of freight, school drop-offs, business access and peak hour traffic. These concerns have seemingly been ignored by the minister and department. The Minister for Regional Roads visited recently but did not seem to have much idea during question time. He needs to listen to my community and put a pause on these works. There is a chance to make it better for our road users. Let's not make it worse.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (15:48): I wish a very big happy birthday to the Rotary Club of Coromandel Valley, which turned 32 this week. I joined them on Monday night for a very lovely dinner. Everyone brought a plate, and we all sat around with hats on and celebrated not only their activity around the local community but also their support of local sporting groups and students and their work on the Drakes barbecue. Every second week they host a barbecue outside Drakes, and they let community groups come and raise money. They can be sports groups, our local Blackwood Players club, which is there at the moment, or Blackwood Action Group. They also helped us when we were getting our parkrun up and running. They are a wonderful group of volunteers, and their members are incredibly warm and generous with their time. I would like to wish them a very, very happy birthday.

Also on the weekend was Clean Up Australia Day up in my electorate. It was the 15th year that Blackwood Action Group hosted volunteers to clean up Blackwood. There were 29 of us, and we filled 14 full bags. We went all the way down to Hungry Jack's—thankfully, that was not my section—down Shepherds Hill Road and also along Coromandel Parade. It was a lovely day. We had a beautiful morning tea afterwards and the work that the community did to try to make our area clean and tidy was incredible. I thank everybody for all of the work that they did.

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