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

I rise today to recognise the importance of community halls, which are central to the small settlements around my electorate of O'Connor. On Saturday night, with former Albany mayor Alison Goode, I opened the new kitchen at the Redmond community hall. Redmond is a community of 205 people on the northern outskirts of Albany. With many Redmond residents, including progress association chair Dean Smart and Jan and Tammy Flett, I shared a wonderful meal cooked in the new kitchen. A $7,000 Stronger Communities grant has helped the hall maintain the social fabric of the community after the Redmond store closed in 2018. And that's not all for the hall. A playground and a new power system are on their way as part of the $580,000 of federal Drought Communities funding that the Albany council is investing in nine rural halls. Other halls to benefit are at Manypeaks, Elleker, Bornholm, Napier, Youngs Siding, South Stirling, Lower Kalgan and King River. From King River hall, Joan and David Watkinson popped into my office on Tuesday and updated my staff on their many activities there. These include an art bazaar, photography courses and mosaic classes. Albany's biggest hall of all is its town hall, built in 1888. Last month the city council met there for the first time since 1967, to commemorate Albany's 150th anniversary as a local government. The meeting was enabled by a recent refurbishment assisted by $215,000 of Local Roads and Community Infrastructure funding. I congratulate the rural community groups for their energy and the city for investing its federal funding into Albany's halls, both big and small.