Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to talk about Euston's very first Great Murray River Salami Festival, which I attended on Saturday. Euston is a small town on the banks of the Murray, in the south-western New South Wales shire of Balranald. Euston and its sister town of Robinvale, across the border, are home to a large population originating in the southern Italian province of Calabria. The area was a soldier settlement area after the Second World War and saw post-war migration by many European, mainly Italian, migrants, who moved to the area, where they remain today.

More recently, the two towns are becoming known for staging some signature events, including the Almond Blossom Festival, the lunar new year and mid-autumn moon festival, and now the Great Murray River Salami Festival.

I really want to pay tribute to the Euston Club and its manager, Guy Fielding, who I met twice, I think, at the Griffith Salami Festival, where he and his team were doing their research on bringing a similar festival to their club and their town but doing it slightly differently, as of course they should. They did, and it was amazing. We were on the banks of the Murray where the Euston weir means the river is high and beautiful with a great expanse of space. Markets came mainly from Mildura but also from the surrounding towns, with crafts, with beer and with gin. There was the deck of the club in the background with music and bright sunshine. So many people were celebrating the culture. It was really, really special.

I should go through the winners. There were four categories. Northern style is traditionally made with the use of pork and a blend of spices, including pepper, cinnamon, cumin and nutmeg, as well as garlic. The winner was Ross Marr from Robinvale. Southern style includes pork, chilli and pepper paste and/or fennel seeds as flavouring. The winner was Felix Liparota from Euston. The bastardo style includes any ingredient other than pork—some say its blasphemy to make salami from anything other than pork, but I did see some venison salami there—and the winner was Peter Heath from Nichols Point near Mildura. In the children's category, the winner was Alexis Katis, who is nine years old. Her score would have placed her second overall.

With an estimated crowd of between 1,500 and 2,000 people—2½ times the entire population of the town—I'm sure that the organisers will declare the event a great success. I know that they are planning another one for 2019. As we know, lots of incredibly hard work goes into planning such an event, so, once again, well done to the Euston Club. We look forward to many more salami festivals to come.