Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the 30th anniversary of the Hunter Wetlands Centre in my electorate of Newcastle. I celebrated this milestone with some of the long-time volunteers and supporters of the centre including Jenny Castles; Wendy Heys; John and Trudi Mills; the current CEO Stuart Blanch; president David Crofts; and the visionary founder of the wetlands, Professor Max Maddock.

Through the hard work and dedication of countless local volunteers, an old rubbish dump and disused oval was transformed into Australia's first community owned Ramsar wetlands and visitors centre. Today the centre is a haven for more the 250 species of Australian wildlife and provides the people of Newcastle with a special place to visit with educational facilities—thanks to Labor's BER program—a bush tucker garden and guided tours.

Over the past three decades, this organisation has fostered community participation and educated thousands of Novocastrians about the significance of wetlands to our region's ecology. Representatives from Kushiro Wetlands in Japan, the Hunter Wetland Centre's sister Ramsar wetlands site, made the journey to Newcastle to show their support of this momentous occasion and to sign a renewal of the sister wetlands relationship. I also had the pleasure of taking the ASEAN parliamentary delegation to join in these celebrations on Saturday.

The weekend also saw the solar project switched on, which will save the wetlands centre some $4000 a year. (Time expired)