Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Western Australia Day long weekend is an opportunity to celebrate who we are as Western Australians. In my enormous electorate, O'Connor communities come together and celebrate in a variety of different ways. This year it was my privilege to spend the WA Day long weekend in the Northern Goldfields, where I gained a firsthand appreciation of how small communities think big when it comes to delivering for their residents and visitors.

The town of Menzies has fewer than 100 residents, but on the WA Day long weekend the Shire of Menzies hosted the 92nd Menzies Classic Chas Egan Memorial Cycle Race. The Menzies Classic is the first leg of the two-stage Goldfields Cyclassic. Since 1938 this road race between Kalgoorlie and Menzies has traced the route taken by the courier cyclists of the 1890s. These courier cyclists carried messages around the goldfields before the telegraph line arrived.

The first race had 24 participants, but this year over 250 cyclists, supporters and friends descended on the town to celebrate at the finish line and into the night. A sit-down dinner for several hundred people was catered for, with home-cooking by the ladies of the Konkani Volunteer Association. Then the Menzies shire put on a spectacular fireworks display which would rival any of the best pyrotechnics anywhere in Australia. Music from DJ Rev rocked the town until the last cyclists rolled their weary bodies into their swags ahead of a chilly goldfields night and another 100 kays of hard road racing the following day.

The Sunday morning kicked off with a hearty community brekkie and DJ Rev rocking the start line. Cyclists hailing from Esperance, Albany, Perth and as far afield as Queensland and Tasmania headed off across the Jeedamia plains. Their route, peppered with goldmines and ghost towns, led to the finish line of the 10th Leonora Golden Wheels leg of the Goldfields Cyclassic in the main street of Leonora. Kudos goes to the Eastern Goldfields Cycle Club for their terrific organisation and promotion of this event after its cancellation last year due to COVID-19.

Leonora's main thoroughfare, Tower Street, was not only the finish line for the Leonora Golden Wheels; it was also the actual running track for the 19th Leonora Golden Gift, Australia's second-highest stakes foot race. With $65,000 in prizes, along with a gold nugget for the elite event winners, there was plenty of local participation in the race as we saw young kids of all abilities running, barefoot and shod, along with novelty events like the women's and men's workboot sprint in the lead-up to the elite athletes event over 600 metres and the mile. Managing Tower Street required the precision timing of an air traffic controller as the running races were paused to allow the four classes of the cyclassic cyclists to finish across the line at speeds of up to 60 kilometres an hour.

Meanwhile, up at the Leonora Bowling Club, there was a bowls championship with $26,000 in prizes and the Leonora Inland Art Prize for those with an appetite for something a little less athletic. There was something for everybody over the Leonora Golden Gift Carnival weekend. Full credit goes to the Shire of Leonora who put on a terrific weekend with free bands and children's entertainment, fireworks, street stalls and breakfast at the historic Hoover House, once home to mining engineer Herbert Hoover, who later became the 31st president of the United States.

An important part of the Golden Gift Carnival weekend in Leonora was the dedication of the JG Epis Centre, named after shire chief executive officer Jim Epis, who has dedicated 40 years of his life to service to the shire. Starting as a grader driver in 1982, Jim worked his way up to the CEO by 1986 and has continued to strive to secure important infrastructure and social outcomes for his community ever since. So it's my absolute pleasure to offer my words of congratulations to Jim, who has demonstrated not only a passion but also a proven track record which could rival any of the sporting events on the weekend.

Last, but by no means least, I headed back to Menzies, where a core group of cyclists and friends of Dr Ruth Murdie, a goldfields resident geophysicist, had reconvened for another special event—a citizenship ceremony Menzies style. In the council chambers, we gathered for shire president Greg Dwyer to preside over the official bestowing of citizenship on Dr Murdie. I'd been called upon to help make this ceremony possible as Dr Murdie was not a resident of any of the Goldfields local government areas. My thanks go to Minister Hawke for helping to make British-born Ruth's dream of an outback ceremony a reality. From the smiles on Ruth's face and the frenetic flag waving of all her assembled friends, I think we welcomed a proud new Aussie to our family, in true goldfields style, on the WA Day long weekend.

House adjourned at 20:00