Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On the weekend I visited Roxby Downs for the 10th handover of the Rotary club there. Congratulations to Sandy Sumsion and the team.

It's 30 years since the township of Roxby Downs was set out in the desert plains, 560 kilometres north of Adelaide. The town was established to provide a home for workers at the newly established Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in 1988. Roxby Downs today has a population of 4½ thousand people. There are about 1,000 children of school age and below in the community. Of these, about 800 attend the Roxby Downs Area School R-12, making it the largest area school in South Australia. Roxby Downs also has St Barbara's Catholic parish school, catering for students to year 6—St Barbara being the patron saint of mining.

With an average population age of 29 years, Roxby Downs is also amongst the highest birthrate communities in Australia. It is a vibrant town with first-class facilities and is a great place to live, work and raise a family. It presents a direct contrast to the FIFO workplaces, with all the associated strains that that lifestyle places on families. As well as servicing Olympic Dam, Roxby Downs is a regional centre for Andamooka, Woomera and surrounding pastoral stations. The copper ore body has been assessed as having a 500-year life at current extraction rates. Roxby Downs and Olympic Dam mine are fabulous resources for the state and the nation.

See this speech in context