Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to congratulate the Caloundra Regional Art Gallery, which is celebrating 10 years this year. I have been associated with the gallery since its inception. I recognise Ken Hinds, the patron. On Friday my wife, Inge, and I attended the official opening of a very impressive photographic exhibition. The Gallery Life exhibition is a retrospective photographic display of events held at the gallery over its life. The photographs are all taken by local photographer Debbie Halls, who has painstakingly and religiously recorded on film and, more recently, often digitally all of the events held at the gallery over the decade.

You can imagine the challenges posed, should someone be asked to prepare this sort of exhibition, in having to source photographs from here, there and anywhere they could be located. It would be a total nightmare, verging on impossible, yet here, through painstaking, devoted and careful documenting of events by one woman who had a close and dedicated association with the gallery, we have such a wonderful collection of photographs that record the life of this wonderful facility. I congratulated Ms Halls for her hard work and dedication and also the gallery for this impressive and valuable collection.

Something that is featured at the exhibition is what is described as a living wall. It is a wall that started off blank, where those who attend the exhibition are able to place an item from the last 10 years, be it a photograph, an invitation from a former event held at the gallery, a personal photo or something else with historical relevance to the gallery. It is an ingenious idea that is itself a piece of art that features snippets of history, that is alive and that will develop over the course of the exhibition, which runs until 18 April. This is a wonderful display, and I am sure the gallery will continue to provide local residents with impressive and relevant exhibitions for many more decades to come. It will continue to be an oasis and provide interest for the people of the Sunshine Coast and the region. I salute the Caloundra Regional Art Gallery. (Time expired)