Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is the time of year for the famous, indeed world-renowned, Jacaranda Festival, which is held annually in Grafton. It begins on the last weekend of October and runs until the first weekend in November. I invite you to attend, Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks, if you have not before. It is a week full of a lot of fun activities. The very first festival was held in 1934 and was Australia's first folk festival. It is also Australia's oldest floral festival, with community engagement still a strong as ever. We focus the celebration around the first Thursday of November, which is the iconic Jaca Thursday. This half-day public holiday sees the main street closed and traders taking to the street in colourful displays of acting, singing and performances.

Another tradition is the crowning of the Jacaranda Queen. This year there are four hopeful queens, who will be guided through their quest by the watchful eye of the matron of honour, Debbie Bowling. Debbie herself was nominated this year by Judy McSwan and she was honoured to be the festivals 81st matron of honour. The four vying for this year's title of the Jacaranda Festival Queen are Kirsten Knox, who is sponsored by the South Grafton Ex-Servicesmen's Club; Kahlia Payne, who is sponsored by the Clarence Coast Riders; Leah Wallace, who is sponsored by the Daily Examiner; and Charlotte White, who is sponsored by Westpac Grafton. We also have five girls vying for junior princess honours. Meggie Ryder is a talented 13-year-old and attends McAuley Catholic College; Madeleine Viddler is a 14-year-old performer, who has competed in many dance styles; Abigail Kennedy is a 12-year-old South Grafton high school student; Grace Spies is a 13-year-old, who is in year 8 at Grafton High School; and Laura Hall is 14 years old and attends McAuley Catholic College. The festival's special guest this year is Stella Wilson, nee Cooper. Stella was born in 1934, the first year of the festival. She first took part in the festival when she was in kindergarten and continued her involvement throughout her primary and secondary years, performing at every festival. In 1955 Stella was crowned the Jacaranda Festival Queen.

Of course, like all events, there are a multitude of people who work tirelessly in the background. The Jacaranda committee do an outstanding job in putting together this huge event. I would like to acknowledge the following people: the president, Trevor Green; the vice president, Helen Weatherstone; the festival coordinator, Donna Hunt; the treasurer, Peg James; the honorary secretary, Helen Templeton; the executive committee, which includes Steve Cansdell, Scott Baker, Clay Murphy and Kristin Smith; the queen candidate director Gail Harding, who is assisted by Anne-Marie Crawford; and also the junior queen directors, Karen Hackett, Enid McKew and Leanne Smith.

As part of the week-long celebrations there are also a host of other events such as the Jacaranda Ball organised by Jenna Atherton; the float parade, under the directorship of Jen Townsend; the Open Gardens Display, organised by Scott Baker; the Venetian Carnival, under the directorship of Gail Harding; the Baby Show and Children's Party organised by Kathryn Lentfer, Michelle Call and Nikki Cousemacker; and, of course, the Culture on the Clarence, a community fair day, which is organised by Casey Challacombe. And there is the afternoon tea party as well as business competitions, picnic in the park and the Jacaranda fun run. The sponsors for 2015 are the Clarence Valley Council, Westlawn Finance, Flight Centre, Blanchard's Bricks and Pavers, Gateway Lifestyle, Grafton Shopping World, Newcastle Permanent, Harveys Jewellers, McDonald's, Telstra Grafton, Bendigo Bank, First National, Ford and Dougherty, the BCU, Coca-Cola and Elders. Madam Deputy Speaker, I encourage you to come to Jacaranda Festival; it is always a great week.

I would also like to talk today about Bounce Back From Disasters in Kyogle. Last Thursday night I had the opportunity to go and look at the hard work of the Kyogle Red Cross, who recently hosted the Bounce Back From Disasters event in Kyogle. This event gave members of the Kyogle community information about what to do in disasters. It also introduced them to the responders and service providers in the community that are best placed to help during and after a disaster. Thanks to this event, we are all more informed and know who the local emergency management team are.

The event included speakers from all of our local emergency services agencies and representatives from volunteer groups. Brian Hoffman from the State Emergency Service, Daniel Ainsworth from the Rural Fire Service and Val Ferris from the Red Cross all spoke about how they could help during times of natural emergencies. Assistant Inspector Andrew Synott from the Kyogle police, a representative from the Department of Families and Community Services and Jen Haberecht from the Department of Primary Industry also presented information to the community. Robyn Cahill and Pat Saville were also two special guests. They were Girl Guides in 1954, during the huge flood that engulfed Kyogle, and they spoke about that. The Kyogle CWA made sandwiches for the event. The Kyogle Lions Club donated drinks and put on a barbeque for those attending. The idea for the event came from a leaders forum. I acknowledge the executive involved in getting this event together: Nicola Mercer, Noelle Lynden-Way, Ken Moore, David Aberdeen, Jeff Breen, Councillor Maggie Creedy, Anthony Smith and Jacqueline Horder.

One of the highlights of the evening was the Drama in Rural Towns students performing a short one-act play called Resilience. The program is an initiative of the Village Hall Players, a touring theatre company which offers young people eight to 17 years old an opportunity to participate in all aspects of theatre, from acting to singing to directing to sound and lighting, in both Kyogle and Casino. Resilience was written by the students and workshopped under the direction of Lynette Zito. The premise of the play is that children who were in some way involved in a flood in Kyogle are interviewed for a national kids news television program one year later. They were to talk to kid journalist Sophie—played by Erin Walsh—about their fears and problems during the flood and what they learned. The students involved were: Erin Walsh, Sinead Jolliffe, Tanea Attwood, Faith Chivers, Chloe Chivers, Anika Seegel, Scarlett Barron-Duncan, Jess Cochrane, Emmilee Taylor, Henry Nettleton and Brooke Walsh. I acknowledge those students; they put on a great performance.

I would also like to acknowledge today a Lismore local, Dave Alley, who has just completed a record-breaking run around Australia. He arrived back in Lismore on Sunday—I just missed him; I was flying out of the Lismore Airport at three o'clock and he was coming by just after that, so I could not say hello to him as he ran by. He has run 80 kilometres—close to two marathons—every day since April 19. He is quoted as saying:

I have never looked more forward to seeing that Lismore sign more than I did today—

after arriving at Oakes Oval in Lismore. He said:

I won't lie, it was tough, the toughest thing I have ever done in my life. Second only to leaving these guys—

his wife and children—

at home, that was really hard as well. To see them today was really special I will never forget that.

Mr Alley said that remaining in constant touch with supporters via social media had been crucial during his marathon effort:

The support has been overwhelming, that is what has got me through …

He said the messages of support 'made me get up every day and push on to get those 80 kilometres every day.' He went on:

A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this. There were several times as we went around when it could have fallen apart. I had my fair share of setbacks and injuries but we got on with what we had to do.

Dave completed the 13,383km milestone in a record 169 days. Dave, what you have done has been inspirational. He also raised a lot of money for a charity, so I thank and acknowledge Dave for that.