Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about a fantastic event that happened on the Central Coast last weekend, an event entitled the 5 Lands Walk. About 12,000 local people and people from Sydney came to the Central Coast and walked on the land under this year's 5 Lands Walk theme of 'connecting people to people and connecting people to place'. I want to praise the great leadership shown by Conn Ryan and Pauline Wright and their core team, which has been undertaking this event for about seven years now. I also want to acknowledge Central Coast Tourism—in particular, the hard work of Chris King and Yantra De Vilder in pulling together an entire cultural program.

The 5 Lands Walk commenced with the calling in of the whales at 8 am last Saturday at the Copacabana Tudibaring headland and the Bouddi National Park. Last weekend was the weekend that we see more whales than on any other weekend throughout the year. There were 12,000 people who headed up to the Captain Cook lookout and who witnessed these whales breaching. Captain Cook lookout is now completely accessible to all people—whether they are a little infirm or in a wheelchair—thanks to $100,000 from this federal government and $100,000 from our local council. It is accessible to all and a vision of a great Australia, uniting Indigenous with multicultural communities in a successful event on the Central Coast last weekend. (Time expired)