Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year the suburb of Para Hills in the Makin electorate and City of Salisbury celebrated its 50th anniversary. On 8 May 2010 a day of community events were held to celebrate this milestone. I attended the day’s events where I was able to touch base with existing and former local residents, many of whom had been pioneers in the early development of the suburb. I was able to catch up with many of the people I have built a personal friendship with over the years.

There is indeed much to celebrate about Para Hills. It is now very much an established community and at times it is even described as an aging community. However, 50 years ago it was all farmland and some considerable distance from any of the surrounding townships. As a child, I grew up in the neighbouring community of Pooraka and can well remember the growth and emergence of Para Hills. The early settlers of the new township of Para Hills can truly be referred to as pioneers. They pioneered a 430 acre residential development that was ahead of its time and, because of their efforts, continues to serve the community very well today and will continue to do so into the future.

My understanding is that Para Hills was the first complete township developed by a private developer in metropolitan Adelaide. The original Para Hills estate cost around £6 million and was the initiative of Reid Murray Developments Pty Ltd, led by its Managing Director, Max Liberman. It was an innovative residential development—it was a complete home package scheme. Land and house, with an automatic washing machine, a refrigerator and a 23 inch TV could be purchased at that time for around £4,500. Within the estate, a large nursery was established and each resident was given six plantings for their new home. Each home, which had three bedrooms, was on an allotment of approximately 700 square metres or larger. Another distinguishing feature of Para Hills is that few residential estates or suburbs can boast the range of community facilities that exist today in Para Hills.

Within a decade or so of the suburb being established, community facilities included a diversity of churches; a primary and secondary school, and the primary school’s numbers reached something like 1,100 within a few years of its establishment; a post office; a council-provided library; a senior citizens centre; a police station; a hotel; a swimming centre; a secure dog park; Salisbury council’s first purpose-built multiuse community centre; and a resident built and owned licensed community club, built largely from the fundraising efforts of the locals at the time. The multitude of sports facilities included Para Hills Soccer Club, home of the Knights; a junior soccer club; an Aussie Rules football club; a tennis club; a netball club; a dance group; a gymnastics club; and the Para Hills Bowling Club. More recently, the Para Hills Amateur Boxing Club, which was in existence from day one, was provided with new facilities. Today it boasts probably the best boxing club facilities in Adelaide. In addition, a country fire service, a scout group, a Lions club, a Country Women’s Association branch, a progress association and the Para Hills Brass Band were formed.

Each of these organisations has its own success stories to tell, but time does not permit me to elaborate on those tonight. Perhaps the most noticeable and visionary achievement of the local community has been the preservation of some 50 hectares of land, now known as ‘the paddocks’, for community recreation, open space and wetlands development. Salisbury council’s first internationally recognised water-harvesting and recycling scheme was established at the paddocks. Securing the 50 hectares of paddocks land for recreation and open space was itself an epic battle for the local community at the time. Agreement was ultimately reached with the Dunstan government of the day and the paddocks public open space was secured.

There are so many people that deserve credit for all that has been achieved in Para Hills over the years. Time does not allow me to name them, and I would always risk omitting some if I tried to. A number of them went on to serve on Salisbury council, and I had the privilege of working alongside them. They were people like David Plumridge, Declan Moore, Eric Gardner, Patsy Nias, Ann Irving and Shiralee Reardon.

In celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Para Hills has much to be proud of. The hard work, the vision and the determination of the early settlers is being built on by equally motivated local residents today. Many of the original residents continue to live in Para Hills—a little older, but no less passionate about their community. Only last week at a public forum, Bob Giles—one of the first Para Hills settlers and one of the key drivers in those early years—as sharp and articulate as ever, stood up for his community. To all of the people who have, over the past 50 years, contributed to the Para Hills community, and to all those who continue to work for that community—and they know who they are—I say: thank you for your efforts and for making Para Hills the suburb it is, a suburb worth celebrating. (Time expired)