Keith Pitt (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure I advise the chamber of the 50th anniversary dinner for the Elliot Heads Surf Life Saving Club, which I attended on Saturday night. There were over 300 attendees for this small family based club and it was quite a history that they presented. There are stalwarts of the club like Bob and Shirl Holden, their sons, Craig and Brett, and Craig's wife, Christine, who are all life members of the club. Some of the parents helped build the club over many decades, like Len and Sue Lynch, Geoff and Jan Baldwin, and John Polson, and there were even some former Surf Girls winners like Nicky Wakefield. I must say they all look fairly spectacular still, many years after they were successful in those events. It was a great pleasure to be there.

The two big awards for the night are the John Barlow Memorial Award—and I knew John well—and the Mugs Cup. The Mugs Cup is a hospital bed pan, which has been used over many years to give to the biggest mug in the club for the year. Simon Collin, whose nickname is Pie-cart, of all things, is a regular winner. This time around the John Barlow Memorial Medal went to a very deserving winner in Ian Winnie. I was very pleased to be able to represent the electorate at the Elliot Heads Surf Club. I was a past member. One of the things I did notice in their history was that the beach that they patrol on never actually existed. They rolled down there with some excavators and a bulldozer and created one, which I think would be incredibly difficult in current situation. It is a club with a long history, a very proud club, and I congratulate them on their 50th anniversary.

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