Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would also like to acknowledge and say welcome to the students from St Augustine's Primary School in Wodonga who are in the gallery today. It is lovely to have you here.

In my presentation today I would like to acknowledge the work of the Murray Rowing Association and to congratulate them on the fantastic rowing regatta that they organised in January. This regatta is Australia's oldest regatta and dates back to 1860. In fact, in 1861, over 3,000 people travelled to Wahgunyah to be part of it. The Murray Rowing Association is a joint venture between the Corowa Rowing Club, Wahgunyah Rowing Club and the Rutherglen Lake Rowing Club. This area has the highest density of rowing clubs per head of population anywhere in Australia. I particularly want to acknowledge the committee for their fantastic work: President Paul Somerville, Vice Presidents Robert Eyers and Phil Culhane, Secretary Eloise Seymour, Treasurer Stacey Whitechurch and committee members Wes, Neville, Maurice, Neil and Stuart. You did a fantastic job. Your professionalism, the way you coped with the number of people and organised the sequence of the races and the huge community involvement is to be commended.

This regatta was originally run as a professional rowing regatta, and the initial prize was 70 pounds—so it was quite significant. The regatta is now run as an amateur rowing regatta and over the past two years there have been over 1,000 entries. Bearing in mind that an eight is counted as one entry, we had over 6,000 people turn up at Lake Moodemere. (Time expired)