Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to inform the Chamber about a young man by the name of Ned Wieland, who lives in my electorate of Wentworth and was a student at Waverley College. Two weeks ago, on a Saturday, he undertook the extraordinary feat of swimming 62 laps of Bondi Beach. Ned first rose to fame in 2017 when, at the ripe old age of 16, he became the youngest Australian male to swim the English channel. In doing so, he raised over $30,000 for the mental health charity R U OK?. Ned had to wait until he was 16 years and 10 days old to complete that swim in the English Channel because the rules at the time—and they're still in effect—didn't let you participate if you were under 16.

Four years later, Ned is still hard at it. Every year, he sets himself the challenge of doing a big swim to raise money for R U OK? and raise awareness of the important issue of mental health. This year, because of the challenges of COVID and not being able to travel, he decided to stay local and swim at his own beach. He set up a course from Ben Buckler, at the north end of Bondi, to 'the Boot'. The distance from that part of North Bondi to South Bondi, as a straight line, makes about an 800-metre lap. The previous record for this was 60 laps. Ned managed 62 laps, which is almost 48 kilometres. That's like swimming the English Channel and halfway back again. It took him around 10 hours. In doing so, as I said, he raised money for the important mental health charity R U OK?.

Ned lost one of his swimming mentors when he was young. That memory has stuck with him and has made it important to him, as a cause, to keep highlighting the issue of mental ill health and what we all need to do to help address it. Before Ned set out for the swim he said:

Swimming is really good for your mental health. Probably not good for your mental health when you're going for bloody 20 hours, but if I can get people down there and get them swimming … you see with the older generation as well as the little ones, the ocean is such therapy for people. You let your thoughts flow and lose yourself in there.

Ned is setting us all a great example. He's an active member of North Bondi surf club, a local within my electorate of Wentworth and someone who, in the short space of his life—he's only 20 years old—has done a huge amount to raise funds and raise awareness of a cause that is close to the hearts of all of us in here. Thank you, Ned, and well done.