Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

Last Friday was a big celebration in my community. We had the official opening of the new Mount Barker Aquatic and Leisure Centre. This replaces our old mountain pool that was built in 1956 and was still in yards. I can tell you from personal experience that our old pool was freezing cold. I was chatting with Jock and he was telling me that, even before our old pool was built, people used to just swim in the creek, and they even used to have celebrations in the creek.

But we have a new pool. This has come from the hard work of my whole community—real community advocacy. There are a few people I would really like to acknowledge: first of all, South Australian Independent MP Dan Cregan, the member for Kavel. Dan Cregan and I have worked tirelessly for years to make this happen. There was $15 million contributed by the federal government; this has been going so long that that was contributed back in 2018-19. I would also like to acknowledge Mount Barker District Council—both the current mayor, David Leach, and the former mayor, Ann Ferguson, who worked tirelessly to make this happen.

This new pool not only has 25-metre swim lanes and an indoor pool for us— in the Adelaide Hills it's freezing, so we desperately needed an indoor pool—but also has much-needed hydrotherapy and a fantastic place for children. So this will be a fantastic facility for all of us for decades to come.

I'd also like to acknowledge SALA. SALA is a wonderful festival that happens all throughout South Australia in the month of August. It's the South Australian Living Artists Festival, with more than 700 events and thousands of artists—actually, more than 9,000 artists. It started in 1998, and it's always in the month of August.

I'd like to acknowledge one particular event I went to. I went to quite a few SALA events in my community, but there was one that I opened, and that was the Season's Bounty art exhibition at Bethany Hall in Willunga. It really recognised and celebrated the wonderful produce that we create in Mayo. It was wonderful to see so many artists. It's my birthday in August, so I actually bought myself a beautiful little birthday present: some chickens, a beautiful piece of chicken—not the real thing; I lost those to foxes.

It's just wonderful to have this platform for visual artists right across the South Australian community. Congratulations to all of the artists that exhibited right across South Australia with SALA. It's a very exciting exhibition. For those who missed the SALA exhibition, please make sure that you get along to SALA. There are schools and different community groups. There's something for everyone.

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