Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I cannot tell you how pleased I was a couple of weeks ago to be able to inform the Peterborough community that they were the recipients of a National Stronger Regions Fund contribution of $8.6 million to install a new wastewater and recycling system within the town. It helps a little to understand the history of Peterborough. It was established in the 1880s as a service centre on the narrow-gauge railway line. In time, it became the junction of three different rail lines and a major service centre for steam trains. The population of the town peaked at close to 4,000 at one stage and, since the standardisation of the lines and the demise of the steam railways, it has shrunk to around 1,600 now.

Consequently, as with many inland centres—and, indeed, many centres—that face large population losses, a lot of cheap housing has come online, and that has meant, in effect, that a lot of the residents of Peterborough are just not able to upgrade the standard septic tank and soakage systems that service the town at the moment. I consider this to be a major health risk in the making, and so I have campaigned for some years for contribution to these works, which will also assist greatly the town's—in fact, the world's—biggest camel exporter, Samex, which is perched on the edge of the town.