Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Lower Burdekin area of Queensland has long been renowned as a destination for those people wishing to engage in the recreational fishing experience. Part of the Burdekin delta estuaries is a locality called Groper Creek. It is on the Home Hill side of the Burdekin River. It is a small town of about 80-odd shacks or beach huts, with a caravan park facility of some 46 sites.

The Home Hill Boat Club consists of a group of volunteers from the Lower Burdekin district who have for more than 60 years looked after the Groper Creek facility and particularly the caravan park. They are as well a fishing club for that part of Queensland. The Home Hill Boat Club saw a need for additional fishing facilities for the community. People come from far and wide—many of them for anything up to three months every year, usually in winter—to stay in this little village and to enjoy the delights of fishing in a locality that has had fairly limited public amenities.

The Burdekin is renowned for good fishing for barramundi, grunter, bream and whiting—any of the popular recreational fishing species—and the Home Hill Boat Club identified additional facilities that would enhance the fishing experience in this area. They heard of the federal government’s Recreational Fishing Community Grants Program. That is a program which the government announced before the 2004 election. It is a grants program that has been helping to expand and enhance the recreational fishing experience as part of this government’s goal of encouraging Australians to go fishing, an experience which is good for families, good for the community and helps local economies at the same time.

So the Home Hill Boat Club, under the presidency of Mr John Fahey and with the assistance of the very hardworking treasurer of the club, Mr Alf Shand, applied to the Australian government for funds under its Recreational Fishing Community Grants Program. They applied for $18,394 and they were successful in getting it. The program requires that applicants match the amount that the Australian government provides and certainly the Home Hill Boat Club provided matching funds primarily in the form of the volunteer labour of about six people for about 912 hours.

What has been done by that club is simply magnificent. Last Friday night I had the honour of officially opening the facilities which club members had built with their own labour and with the assistance of the Australian government. The project provided amenities at Groper Creek consisting of two covered fish-cleaning tables with wash-down facilities at the water’s edge. As well as that, there were two covered gazebo areas to be used for barbecues and as recreational meeting areas for fishers. They also constructed a concrete wash-down area for the hosing of boats after fishing.

Friday evening was absolutely delightful. It was a real pleasure to be there with the locals from Home Hill and Ayr and also the dozens of people from all over Australia who make Groper Creek their home for anything from one week to three months each year. It was a very pleasant night. It was great to see the local state member, Mrs Rosemary Menkens, who is also the shadow environment minister, there, along with Councillor Ross Lewis from Burdekin Shire Council. I was particularly delighted to recognise Councillor Mark Haynes. Not only is he the Deputy Mayor of Burdekin Shire Council but also he is the chairman of the committee that advises Senator Abetz—who, fortuitously, is in the chamber—on applications for funding under the government’s Recreational Fishing Community Grants Program. Councillor Haynes was there not only as a representative of the Shire but also, his position as chairman of the advisory committee. I assured the audience, however, that the fact that he was the deputy mayor and also the chairman of this committee had nothing to do with the fact that the grant was successful. Clearly, the grant was successful on its own merits. It is an ideal example—in fact, it is one of the first completed projects—of the worth of this recreational fishing grants program.

This program was introduced by the government to enhance the recreational fishing experience, and what the Home Hill Boat Club have done at Groper Creek will certainly enhance the recreational fishing experience of the many hundreds of people who use that facility every week of the year. The people who built the covered gazebo areas have real pride in what they have achieved. They have named one of these covered gazebo areas Bucket’s Bar. Apparently the late Mr Bucket who returned to Groper Creek to go fishing used to hold court, so to speak, in this area, so one of the gazebo areas has been nicknamed Bucket’s Bar after him. The other covered gazebo area is, as the locals explained, for the silvertails. It is slightly up-market. It actually has an electric barbecue in it, so they probably call it ‘Bouquet’s Bar’ in contrast to Bucket’s Bar down the other end of the area. Both of them have been built by club members with loving care and great enthusiasm. These are a real contribution to the locality and will certainly enhance the recreational fishing experience.

It was a real honour for me to be there last Friday night. I was delighted to be part of a very happy gathering of an enthusiastic group of people, people who really appreciate a government payment of some $18,000—not a big amount of money as far as government largesse goes these days but to them it was a very significant amount of money which they matched with blood, sweat and tears and a bit of their own money. It really has created a marvellous facility for the Lower Burdekin and is a credit to all involved.