Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

Milang is a small town on the Lower Lakes. As a community, its fortunes have fluctuated with the flows of the Murray. Today it is a community that is still recovering from the millennium drought. The people of Milang have always been resilient and innovative. A prime example of this was the launch on the weekend of the Milang contribution to the Hills Sculpture Trail. Their sculpture, Run Like the Wind, by Gheorghi Filin, was majestic on the shores of Lake Alexandrina.

What is truly magnificent about this project is how the community came together to embrace it. My community of Milang is not wealthy. It's not a large district, either. It is home to 880 residents. But the local residents managed to raise $28,000 in just four months so they could take part. Their enthusiasm has inspired the trail's organising body, the Adelaide Hills International Sculpture Symposium. At the launch, Artistic Director Silvio Apponyi declared that Milang was the best match between artists and community of all of the 26 sculptures created for the trail in the last six years.

I congratulate all 26 communities, including Milang, for embracing the vision of the trail. I echo the words of the South Australian Governor, Hieu Van Le, who at the launch said that the trail has given residents a sense of pride in their towns and encouraged South Australians to rediscover the Adelaide Hills and the Fleurieu with fresh eyes.

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