Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 1 May I went to Manoora Centenary Park. Madam Deputy Speaker, I do not know if you know where Manoora is. It is a small town in the Clare and Gilbert Valleys. It is a wonderful little town. I went there to open an oval irrigation project, for which $108,500 was received as a grant as part of the government's $530 million Water for the Future program, which helps communities around Australia secure their water supplies. The grant paid for the installation of a storage tank and an overflow line as well as for a subsurface irrigation system at Manoora oval.

Manoora is a great little town. I grew up in the country town of Kapunda and I know that the social life of towns typically revolves around the oval, around footy and cricket. One of the problems with Manoora oval in its previous iteration was that it could be used for only three months of every year because of its hard playing surface. This project has meant that the oval can be watered and used all year round and does not put at risk the welfare of the players. The excess water, which will be stored in the town reservoir, will be used as a supplementary water supply for roadworks and for the local CFS brigades. The project is part of a million-dollar grant for which the Clare council put together an application for a number of small projects, and it has provided a number of benefits for the Clare township and for other townships in the area, like Riverton. It has been an important and good use of public moneys to secure the townships' water supplies.

I want to thank Rob and Anne Willmott, who own the farm from which the water comes. It comes off the top of haysheds, believe it or not, and it flows down to the town. I want to thank Liz Calvert and Pat Quick, who wrote the grant application; John Quick and Daryn Quick, who are their long-suffering partners; John Hogben, who is the President of the Manoora Centenary Park Committee; and also my parliamentary colleagues Geoff Brock, who is the state member for Frome, and Mayor Allan Aughey, who is the Mayor of the Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council. Obviously this is a pretty important project, and it was great on Sunday to go up to Manoora, share their hospitality and see their good works.