Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am looking forward to the opportunity of attending the opening of the Ashgrove Sports Ground redevelopment next month. This is not your ordinary backyard redevelopment; this was a $2 million revamp of one of the best and largest sporting facilities and fields in the Brisbane electorate. It is home to three sporting clubs: the Valley Cricket Club, which boasts Allan Border and Matty Hayden as club members, and also the GPS Old Boys and GPS Juniors. It is a major facility and it has undergone over the course of the last 18 months or so a very major rework of the grounds.

It has also been an excellent example of the cooperation between local, state and Commonwealth governments, as the funding came from all three tiers in one of those rare examples where the system and bureaucracies worked together to deliver a fantastic outcome for all involved. And ‘all involved’ means a very large number of local sports boys and girls. There are in excess of 1,400 registered players who use those fields all year round. It is a major sporting facility with a huge participation rate and I am happy to say that my young son is amongst that group as one of Valley’s cricket players.

The Commonwealth contribution was to improve the water reticulation. Obviously water supply is a major issue in a sportsground of that kind and in South-East Queensland we appreciate now more than ever just how scarce and how valuable that water is. The new facility boasts a two-million-litre storage facility. That will save an estimated 10 million litres of water a year whilst at the same time ensuring one of the best playing fields anywhere in Brisbane.

I want to pay particular thanks to the driving force behind the project, John Moran, who was the coordinator. I also want to acknowledge a number of other people without whose support over many years the clubs would not have reached this point. I think that it is fair to say that the cricket club was the driving force behind it. There are people like Jon Stoddart, who is the chairman of the club and one of the stalwarts; and Ian Reeves. Most of the people up at the Ashgrove Sports Club do not know that Ian Reeves has a first name—everyone just calls him Reevsie—but he does actually have a first name. There is Peter Easton, who is the president of the club; Keith Dudgeon, a long-time stalwart and supporter; and Gilly Chapman, who is the records freak for the cricket team. If you live anywhere in the suburbs around Ashgrove—in Ashgrove, Bardon, Enoggera, St Johns Wood or The Gap—you know how important this field is. Next month we will all get the opportunity at the major opening to enjoy that and celebrate that success.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for constituency statements has concluded.