Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

LI () (): Spring is a wonderful time. The weather is normally shining, although this weekend just gone we had the Wandin field day, which in the Yarra Valley we know means there must be rain in the Yarra Valley, unfortunately! The farmers love it. The committee, who are also farmers, don't enjoy it so much. I say thank you to the field day committee. It was a wonderful day despite the mud and the rain. There's a lot that we got to do. I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in the community, including going to visit the Healesville Bowling Club to open their new pavilion, which had been reinvigorated from their historic location. Importantly, it was named the 'Beryl Ayres Pavilion'.

Beryl is a local sporting champion. She's a community leader. She won numerous championships over 50 years at the club. It was an honour to be able to pay tribute to her and her sporting prowess. Having played cricket for decades against her grandsons, Luke, Brad and Kane Jones, I have no doubt that the sporting genetics moved down their family. They're great cricketers and legends of Yarra Valley cricket. It was great to see Beryl and catch up with Leah as well and reminisce on junior times.

The club also had Ted Upton, who is the oldest living male member, cast the first jack, and then Beryl and her son, Robert, rolled the first bowl to open the season. The president of the Healesville Bowling Club is my old cricket coach from Healesville, John Fitzpatrick. I say thank you to John and also Bealesy, the former president, for their work there. I was so inspired after going to see the bowls club I did drop in and see the boys at the Healesville Cricket Club. They're two and oh, so they're pretty happy at the moment. It was good to see a few old faces and some younger faces that were little kids when I started playing. There is a moment when time passes us by. Congratulations to the Healesville Cricket Club on the start to the season.

On Sunday I had the opportunity to visit the Rotary Club of Healesville's Dog's Day Out. It was a tough contest. I was judging the 'best rescue dog' and the 'most handsome dog'. There was a lot of great competition. I took the easy option; I brought my daughter, Georgie, to judge for me. She came up with some winners. One did look a lot like Bingo from Bluey, so I think they had the inside running! Congratulations to Vinay, the president, Michael, the treasurer, and all the committee at Healesville rotary for Dog's Day Out. It has been a tradition in our community to have this event. Unfortunately, as we all know, with COVID we weren't able to hold it for many years, but there were so many people there enjoying the weather—it was sunny on Sunday, which was nice—enjoying their dogs and having a bit of banter and a bit of competition. All the money raised goes back to our community. Healesville rotary is such a big part of the Healesville community, giving back not just to the local community but internationally as well. It was wonderful to be there and to join my state colleague, Cindy McLeish, in supporting rotary and spending a wonderful weekend in the Healesville community.

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