Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to bring the attention of the House today to the work of a young constituent of mine, Christopher McHughes, otherwise known as Burra Mac. Burra Mac is a year 12 student at Brewarrina high school. He is 17 years of age and has developed a knack for photography. His work has become quite well known right across the West. Burra Mac's photographs show a wonderful depiction of the life of a young lad growing up in Brewarrina. He specialises in landscapes and sunsets, but he has some wonderful snaps of living on the river. Brewarrina is very much a river town. When Burra finishes year 12 at the end of this year, he hopes to become a paramedic, and he will need to leave Brewarrina to study further. It is interesting that he has done all of this on a borrowed camera. He is saving up for the $1,200 he needs to buy a camera of his own. Burra is just one of the young people who live in western New South Wales, along with another good friend of mine, Nathan Johnson, who was the school captain of Brewarrina last year and is now doing a fine arts degree at Newcastle university. These young men clearly indicate the spirit, the talent and the drive that the young people of western New South Wales have.