Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a special event at Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre tomorrow and I'm looking forward to attending. It's located at Burrumbuttock, north-west of Albury. Wirraminna is an internationally recognised, award-winning, volunteer-run, community-based function centre set in five hectares of reclaimed native woodland. The centre is used for school and community activities and provides displays and teaching resources for regional schools in southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. Tomorrow will top off the highly successful journey for the facility of over more than 10 years.

Back in 2005 I was able to assist in securing financial support from the Australian government's Regional Partnerships program to kickstart the facility a year later. This week we are celebrating a major expansion to the site which provides brand-new office and display spaces as well as a verandah extension. I'm proud to say half of the $75,000 project has been sourced from our Building Better Regions Fund. The money is also making the centre fully insulated, with double-glazed windows and air conditioning. We have been also able to install telecommunications, data lines and set-ups for future extensions for a solar-powered system. The works will allow multiple groups to use the facility at once, meaning more students can get an understanding of the wonderful native plants and animals in this local woodland environment.

Importantly, the upgrade created eight jobs during construction and will support six permanent positions. This increase in staff will enable the centre to now open from Monday to Friday, making it a wonderful facility accessible to thousands more locals and visitors. That increase is forecast to see a jump in visitors of over 70 per cent, helping drive local tourism and providing further economic opportunities. That's essentially what our Building Better Regions Fund program is all about—big and small amounts of money delivering opportunity and growth in regional Australia.

I'm looking forward to catching up once again with Owen Dunlop and Adrian Wells, two individuals who have been associated with Wirraminna over so many years, and just to seeing the facility come to life, which it always does when there is a classroom full of students. It's a magnificent woodland, with fascinating teachers and instruction and lots of visitors passing through as well in what is, after all, just a small village in south-west New South Wales.