Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to speak tonight about the communities that I represent and the great festivals that are a great part of the Tasmanian scene, especially at this time of year—the celebration of individuals and activities that go on within different regions of my electorate.

Last week I was at the 110th Bream Creek Show. They have a great competition there for the biggest pumpkin; some of them are nearly as big as your chair, Mr Speaker. They certainly celebrate pumpkins in a big way at Bream Creek. Brian Fish was there with his bullock team—I once outpulled his bullock team, which was a great part of history for that show.

The week before that, I was at the Fingal Valley festival, where they celebrate coal shovelling, wood chopping and sheep shearing. The world roof bolting championships were also on. This is where miners drill into large blocks of concrete which have been set up with a huge crane. They practice their art and miners come from all over to compete in that competition. It is a great celebration of Australian working people. They also do yard dog trials. There is the veterans bike race, from Fingal to Mathinna and back. That was won by my mate John Watkins this year, and he was a great winner and really appreciated his win.

SteamFest at Sheffield, which is overseen by Chris Martin, is a celebration of all things steam—people’s involvement with and love of steam—the history of steam engines and things of steam. This year they were to open their new shed with money from the Tasmanian community fund, which will give them great opportunity to do a lot more work on steam engines and on their train.

The Longford harvest festival celebrates the harvest of the land, from the farms to the vegie and fruit patches of backyards. It is a wonderful festival and it has a great pet parade. I always travel on the fire engine with my dog Peggy, and we take in the sights of our local town together; it has become a bit of a thing for us to celebrate.

The Kempton festival celebrates horses, coaches, gigs and everything else that is horse-drawn. This year I had the honour of opening their new coach shed. It is a great shed, and it is well organised. If you travel down the highway between Hobart and Launceston you can see the shadows of horses and coaches on each end of that great little town.

The autumn festival at New Norfolk includes the celebration of hops and the history of hop growing in that region. It is held at Bushy Park, where hops is still grown. That is a terrific opportunity. This year maybe they will get some boats coming up the great Derwent River and through the rising bridge. We might even get a passenger train up this year as well.

At the Oatlands festival the Carrington Mill is driven by wind grinding wheat into flour. Organic flour is grown in the electorate. They are producing some great stuff. Oatlands has more sandstone cottages, houses and other buildings than any other village in Tasmania.

Swansea has the Freycinet Peninsula festival. They are celebrating with a French theme; they have a mayor that was born in France. There is also: St Patrick’s Day at Westbury; the penny-farthing fair at Evandale with everything to do with penny-farthings, including the world championship; Poatina Fun Day; and of course the Brighton School Fair. It is a great way to celebrate in Tasmania. (Time expired)