Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have just a quick note for the member of O'Connor. Some of the sheep from his electorate have arrived in my electorate, and they are being very well looked after. We also have sheep in my part of the world. We, in fact, have the Australian Sheep and Wool Show, at which I'm sure this will be a topic.

What I really wanted to speak about today was our Easter festivals in Bendigo. We have some of the longest continuous Easter festivals in central Victoria. The Bendigo Easter Festival celebrated its 150th year a few years ago. It's a great long weekend that we have in Bendigo. Ever since we've had an Easter festival, we've had the involvement of our Bendigo Chinese Association and our much loved dragons.

This year at our Easter Festival, we had a very special celebration. We celebrated the 150th anniversary of Australia's first women's cricket match. That's right—the first women's cricket match happened in Bendigo. It was part of the Bendigo Easter fair. This year was the reenactment of that very special first event. The teams were called the Blues and the Reds, the Blues being captained by Barbara Rae and the Reds being captained by her sister, Emily Rae. The Blues ended up winning the day, and their captain, Barbara, was a top scorer. At the time, women's cricket, as you can imagine, 150 years ago did cause controversy, not just in the town of Bendigo but throughout Victoria and Australia. Barbara was to be presented with a special bat that evening, but due to the mixed reaction of the community she didn't attend. This year on Good Friday, I'm proud to say, on the 150th anniversary, her great-granddaughter Diane Robertson was there to receive the special bat on behalf of her ancestor 150 years later. It's a true testament to the women who re-enacted the match—the T20 game between Bendigo and Ballarat. It was a real moment to acknowledge how far we've come in women's sport and to celebrate that all men and women can play cricket if they choose to.

I want to acknowledge the efforts of the City of Greater Bendigo and the Bendigo Historical Society to make this event happen. We are so proud of our history in Bendigo. At every Easter festival, we always find something new to celebrate, and this was, very much, well worth celebrating and enjoyed by many.

The other thing I wanted to mention today is our much loved dragons, who are always the grand finale in our Easter parades: Loong, who is over 120 years old; Sun Loong, who is the longest imperial dragon in the world, paraded for 50 years; and our newest dragon, Dai Gum Loong. Generations have cheered on and celebrated our dragons. I was there this year with my partner, his father and my children celebrating the dragons. Geoff Emond has been going to the parade since he was a boy in Bendigo. He went there with his grandparents and parents, so that is five generations of our family who've enjoyed the dragons.

But I have a very sad note to report to the House. People in this place know how much I share the love that Bendigo has for our dragons. Sun Loong was vandalised earlier this week. People came into the Golden Dragon Museum, where he lives, and sprayed an oily substance onto this heritage dragon. The police are investigating, but they estimate the damage to Sun Loong, which is a heritage dragon—one of a kind in the world—and other artefacts to be close to $100,000. We're also not sure whether the damage can be reversed, and we do hope it can. We know that the police are investigating and they're looking at all angles as to why people would be motivated to target not just our dragons but other monuments, statues, temples, artefacts and stoneworks within the Golden Dragon Museum.

I know that this news is quite shocking not just to the people of Bendigo but to the entire Australian Chinese community. Generations of Chinese Australians have made the pilgrimage to Bendigo to be part of our Easter celebrations. So we stand together to condemn this act of vandalism and do hope that police bring about a swift arrest in this case. We also say to the Golden Dragon Museum: we stand with you and we will see Sun Loong parade again.

House adjourned at 20:00

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