Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

One of the things I have spent a bit of time in recent years talking about is local history in Tasmania. It's one of those things that some might describe me as nerdy for liking, but it is a passion—my colleagues agree with that assessment. The reason I raise it is that there is a certain individual in Tasmania who's done a great amount of work in recent times to bring to life some local history that, of course, has for many, I think, been forgotten. I'm talking about a fellow by the name of Rob Parsons, who's become quite a bit of a YouTube hit for exposing and exploring some of Tasmania's forgotten history, particularly on the west coast. I was touched to see a video that Mr Parsons put together recently about a Chinese prospector who helped discover the great goldfields in western Tasmania, around Brown Plains—just near Corinna, past Waratah—and how racism back at that point in time meant that Mr John Ah Choo, the Chinese prospector, was forgotten. He had one request, which was to be buried as an Englishman.

This Mr Parsons went off into the wilderness to try and locate Mr Ah Choo's grave. He went to the lengths of doing research to try and locate where he was buried, to tell the story of this individual and of the community he was a part of, and, ultimately—as a wonderful act of recognition of some of our prospectors who have long been forgotten in Tasmania's history—he created a huon pine headstone that would be erected in Mr Ah Choo's memory.

So I say to Mr Rob Parsons of north-west Tasmania: thank you for bringing to life such a unique, niche part of our history that many would drive past or have forgotten about. It's an important part of the story we have as a state. I'm proud that Tasmanians are taking time and an interest and are putting research into trying to interpret some of the things that, as I said, have been forgotten to time. Well done to him.