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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-11-21 Daily Xml
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VOLUNTEER FUNDRAISING

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:46): I rise today to give some emphasis to the great efforts of volunteers and community organisations at three recent events which I have attended and which have raised significant funds for excellent but very different causes in this state. First, on 21 October 2007, I was very pleased to attend the North Moolooloo Golf Classic at the North Moolooloo station via Copley. I am not sure whether you have ever shorn there, sir, but I think you probably know where it is.

It was the fifth biennial golf classic. I did not play but I did assist in some of the organisation and provision of refreshments, etc. That wonderful event raised $15,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. There were 19 teams, incorporating 86 players from all over South Australia. It was a very hot, dusty day, but most of the competitors completed the 18-hole course. There was terrific food put on and, of course, an auction, which contributed to that wonderful amount of $15,000.

I congratulate Ian and Karen Ferguson, the owners of North Moolooloo station, for their great support for this cause, as well as the members of the Copley Cricket Club, who provided great support.

The second event was the Gawler Barossa Tractor Pull, which was held at the Gawler Paceway on 10 November. It was sponsored by the Gawler Rotary Club (of which I am a member) and the Gawler Light Rotary Club. It was the inaugural event, and it was run by the Gawler Barossa Tractor Pull Incorporated on behalf of the Australian Tractor Pull Association. There was an attendance of more than 4,800 people, and gross takings exceeded $90,000.

It was a wonderful event. I spent more than four hours in the ticket box on a relatively warm day, and for most of that time we were completely busy with people as they came in. In fact, there were people queued up outside the gates when it started at 10 o'clock in the morning, and the event went right through until 10 o'clock at night.

I do commend the committee chairman Bob Ahrens and all of the many hundreds of volunteer helpers, including the venue coordinator Steve McLachlan and the event coordinator Mike Williams. Many others contributed to that event, which I think will raise more than $65,000 for Rotary projects in the local community and overseas.

The final event I wish to mention is the Craig Haines Memorial Trust's Sportsmen's Night, which was held last Friday night at the Northern Districts Cricket Club at Salisbury. It was the tenth such event, attracting 200 people, and the amount raised exceeded $7,000 for the first time. Many members might recall that 10 years ago Craig Haines was a young man of 20 who tragically lost his life in a bungled service station robbery in Gawler. He had just returned from a scholarship in the United Kingdom playing cricket, an experience from which he benefited greatly. He was a member of, at that stage, the newly formed Northern Districts Cricket Club. The club formed the Craig Haines Memorial Trust to raise money to allow other promising young cricketers the same opportunity to play cricket in the northern hemisphere and to benefit from that experience.

I give great credit to the organisers of that function at the Northern Districts Cricket Club—Steven Oates, David Northcott and Mavis Northcott, who was the mother of the late Craig Haines. I also commend Max Walker, who was the speaker at the event and who I believe freely gave his time, speaking for over an hour and a quarter and answering questions and signing books for a much greater time that that.

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