Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

Over the weekend, I attended a great event, which was the 150th anniversary of the town of Katamatite. Katamatite is a small country town that sits on the Boosey creek near its junction with Broken Creek, about 46 kilometres north-east of Shepparton. Many iconic people have come from Katamatite, including identical twin brothers Rod and Don Kilgour, local media personalities who became sports announcers on GMV-6 television. Don later entered the Victorian parliament as the member for Shepparton in 1991.

As you enter the town, a sign greets you, saying 'Home of the 1995 Stawell Gift Winner'. That was Glenn Crawford, who won with a time of 11.79 seconds. Katamatite's got a great reputation as a sporting town. I've attended football training there, and I've attended junior cricket training, where I was clean bowled by a young guy and then thought, 'Instead of batting, I'll go and try bowling.' A young lady sent the ball back over my head a considerable distance. It's also the reigning premier of the Picola and District Football Netball League. Above all, Katamatite is a great little town. It produces high-quality agricultural produce that goes all around the world. It's weathered drought, changing economics and fluctuations in population. But, throughout this, Katamatite has maintained a strong sense of identity and community. When they had some fire dramas earlier this year, they all banded together to help each other out and get through that crisis.

Last year, Shepparton Theatre Arts Group celebrated 50 years in existence. Shepparton Theatre Arts Group is an absolute gem of the Greater Shepparton and Goulburn Valley area. It has musical productions. It has plays. It has all sorts of events that bring the community together to participate but also be the audience. They've done some really big things like Grease, My Fair Lady and Jesus Christ Superstar. Local playwrights have also written about issues that affect us. One local playwright—who's a podiatrist as his day job but writes plays when he's not looking at feet—wrote some great plays, one called Dookie and one called Watershed. I was actually in Watershed, playing a dairy farmer with a pair of binoculars who was trying to look at a bunch of ladies doing a naked rain dance. I performed that rather well! But it was a wonderful play. It brought the community together, and it explored an issue that we were facing: our drought and our irrigation system.

Congratulations to Shepparton Theatre Arts Group. Here's to another 50 years of wonderful performances.

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