Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hope all the people who needed to hear that speech did hear that speech. Twenty years ago I was turning the sod on an adventure at Walhalla. I was the member for McMillan at the time, of which Walhalla was a part. Michael Leaney was turning the sod on a dream that was a huge risk: he was going to rebuild the Star Hotel—long gone—at Walhalla. He had decided, as a young man, that he would rebuild a hotel that was at that time in the middle of nowhere, in Walhalla, where they had 20,000 visitors a year, if that. Michael Leaney was going to rebuild the Star Hotel. We turned the sod for the Star Hotel and he built the Star Hotel. I was there the other day. He said: 'Here' a photo of you, Russell. Here you are, sitting at the end of the group, as we turned the sod for the Star Hotel.' I looked a little different! Michael was somebody who actually followed his dream.

Another dreamer in this House who made a great contribution was the former Nationals leader Tim Fischer. What's he got to do with Michael Leaney? Tim loved trains and, of course, Walhalla has trains. As the member for McMillan, I couldn't go a day in this House without Tim Fischer saying to me: 'How's Walhalla going?' And we were able to get some funding then to enable the enhancement of the railway. The Star Hotel was the local pub. There were dangerous mines everywhere and people lived a long way away. You had to go through Moe, turn north past Westbourne, and go up to Erica and then into Walhalla.

There are three crucial bits of infrastructure that we need. We need the South Face Road built so that access to Walhalla will be easy, we need more power for Mount Baw Baw and we need sewerage in Walhalla for it to be able to expand. And, if we can get it, we need more funding so the railway can go from the Thomson River all the way down to Erica. The state government have the plans before them. I hope they will put presentations before us. We have just been able to plan for the building of a mobile phone tower for Walhalla for safety and further recreational opportunities under the Black Spot Program. But there are some difficulties. It is solid rock where you have to dig to put this tower in. The department might have to look at three smaller towers through the valley rather than one big tower where it is going to be extremely difficult to cut through the rock to get the power and the cables in.

I mentioned the now Councillor Michael Leaney because of needing to do the things we need to do for small communities. I visited Neerim South Aged Care the other day with Kate, the new leader. They are so enthusiastic. It is great to do big things in cities. We see the major infrastructure that gets announced. We are going to have rail to the airport, a new freeway here and a tunnel there. It will cost billions of dollars. But in small communities like Walhalla and Neerim South it doesn't take a lot of money to change the lives of a lot of people. Walhalla now has 140,000 visitors a year and the infrastructure can no longer cope with the people who want to come and visit. Michael Leaney's hotel is a pleasure to go to, a pleasure to stay at. The coffee is as good as you would get anywhere across the metropolitan parts of Melbourne and Sydney. You are in pristine fresh air in an eerie valley with a huge history. Remember, it was sustenance workers who built that railway line for the first time that went from Moe, through Erica, and up through Coopers Creek to Walhalla. They built an enormous trestle bridge over the Thomson River. I think their vision was marvellous. Michael Leaney, congratulations. It is a pleasure to still be here 20 years on.