Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my electorate of Parkes, I am very pleased to say that Broken Hill is having its Heritage City Week, which runs from 8 to 14 October.

Broken Hill is the very first and only entire city or town on the National Heritage List; it was placed on the list on 20 January last year. As part of Heritage City Week, my wife Robyn and I attended the annual Miners' Memorial Day yesterday. It was a very moving experience. Yesterday was chosen because it is the closest Sunday to 8 October, the day on which Leopold Campbell and Thomas Jordan died on the Central Mine in 1902. Their bodies were never recovered. They were young men—from memory one was 18 and one might have been 20.

The Miners' Memorial Service was conducted on the Line of Lode within the vicinity of the Miners' Memorial. The Line of Lode is the ore body that bisects the town and is the physical reminder of the city's mining origins. Mining commenced in Broken Hill in 1883, but, sadly, there have been more than 800 deaths since mining commenced in that town.

Needless to say, the city of Broken Hill has outstanding significance to the nation for its long, enduring and continuing mining operations. Indeed, the famous Australian company, BHP, started in Broken Hill many years ago.

There are lots of activities taking place for Heritage Week in Broken Hill. As a relatively new member after the boundary change, taking over from the honourable Susan Ley, I have really enjoyed being part of this truly unique city in western New South Wales. As part of Heritage Week, the Quota Heritage Display and Photography and Art Competition, which is being managed by West Darling Arts Incorporated, is being housed in the iconic Trades Hall. I was in the Trades Hall yesterday. If anyone has not been to Broken Hill, they should go and visit the Trades Hall. Broken Hill has a very unique history and culture, which maybe has not always embraced my side of politics, but I might say that it is a heritage that Broken Hill can be proud of. Certainly that heritage and pride was on display yesterday when we were there.

Another attraction is tours of the flora and fauna of the Barrier Ranges conducted by the Broken Hill City Council ranger. Also there are heritage-related workshops being held across the city, including local heritage skills training and stone and rising damp conservation workshops. And yesterday there was a wheelbarrow race around Sturt Park. The significance of that is that it is a re-enactment of the miners moving from Burra in South Australia to Broken Hill, carrying their possessions in wheelbarrows and pushing them to the city. I understand that that is about a 400-kilometre trip. In the early days this would have been a mighty undertaking.

I am very pleased that the Electoral Commission chose to change the boundaries and put Broken Hill in the electorate of Parkes. I am very much enjoying understanding the unique culture and history of this wonderful town and I am very appreciative of the great warm welcome and respect that I have been shown in the short time that I have been there. I am very pleased to announce that I am advertising for positions to staff my office, which will be opened very shortly, so that I will have a permanent presence in the city of Broken Hill.