Sarah Witty (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Ahoy, Deputy Speaker! At North Wharf in Docklands, I saw volunteers bring a 122-year-old ship back to life: the Alma Doepel, a three-mast tall ship built in 1903. This ship has served our nation. She carried goods on our coast and worked as an army supply ship to Papua New Guinea.

Today, a skilled team and many local volunteers are bringing her back to life. More than 100,000 volunteer hours have gone into this work so far. This is a huge gift of time and craft. When Alma sails again, she will become a youth training ship. It's a program which will build grit, teamwork and confidence.

Also in Docklands is the topsail schooner Enterprize, a 27-metre all-timber working replica of the 1830 ship that carried the first European settlers to Melbourne. Enterprize is sailed by volunteers and runs sail training and public sails across the bay. I thank her crew and supporters for keeping these skills alive.

I thank Bill Reid for the kind invite and for his work, and I thank every volunteer—older hands passing on skills and new faces learning them. This is Melbourne at its best—community, history and hope in one project. I encourage people to check them out online and support their inspiring work. Alma Doepel shows what we can do when we back our volunteers—

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