Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to stand in this House today and share with the members just how lucky I am to represent the most beautiful electorate in this country, a coastal electorate with some fantastic surf-lifesaving clubs. I notice the member for Paterson is in the chamber, and he might contest the fact that I have the absolute best surf clubs within the Hunter region. Like other members who have surf clubs in their electorates, I have been attending the presentation nights of my local surf clubs. In Shortland electorate I have Redhead Surf Lifesaving Club, which has one of the best beaches, I think, in the country and definitely in the Hunter. It has quite challenging surf, and you need to have a very strong surf club on the beach all the time watching what is happening.

We then go to the Swansea Belmont surf club which has hosted the state titles for the last three years. It has a very proud record in both competition and patrolling the beaches. It is the centre of the Blacksmiths’ community. It is a focal point for the residents in that area and the people of the Blacksmiths area strongly support their surf club. There is Caves Beach surf club which is a strong family club and also has a very proud record of looking after the beaches.

Caves Beach was the last presentation I went to and I was overwhelmed by the number of people that attended. It is my understanding that they had so many people wanting to attend that they could not accommodate them all at the presentation. It gives you an idea of the feeling and the support of the community. A number of these surf clubs have patrols that have 100 per cent attendance, which shows the dedication. I cannot miss out on Catherine Hill Bay which is another surf club that patrols an area in the southern part of Lake Macquarie. There were some fishers that were drowned in that area recently and the surf clubs of the area came together to recover those bodies. These are clubs that are committed to their community and have a proud record.