Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Sunday I attended the annual Voices of the Village event at the Mitcham Reserve. This event is held every year to celebrate the creative diversity of the City of Mitcham, to promote to the community the activities and opportunities at the Mitcham Cultural Village, and to engage with local community groups. There were music and dance performances, workshops and children's activities. Celebrating the cultural diversity of Mitcham, food offerings included Indian, Persian, Afghan, Indonesian and African style foods, as well as Australian cuisine. A number of the Blackwood Players were there in period costume.

This year was a special occasion as we were also celebrating the 175th anniversary of Mitcham Village. The province of South Australia had been proclaimed by Governor Hindmarsh only two years earlier, in 1836, at the time that the village of Mitcham was established, in 1838. At the time there had been a slow take-up of land orders for the new colony. An advertisement on 21 November 1840 in The Register, the forerunner to The Advertiser newspaper, advertised land parcels that were 'Delightful sites for visitors. Close to town, but with the advantages of a country residence.' While Adelaide may have changed since then, that statement is certainly still true for large parts of Mitcham, which extends up through the foothills through Blackwood and Belair, to Crafers West and Upper Sturt. It was a great day, and a great way to celebrate the history of our local area.