Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I look at you, Senator Heffernan, and I will drop the ‘oldie’ comment. As I said, these students took a lot out of that. There were seven days of sleeping rough. I say ‘sleeping rough’, because what we actually slept on—and I am not kidding you—was about three centimetres of foam on a black groundsheet. I said to my daughter, who accompanied us, at the time, ‘Look, babe, I cannot wait till we get home; I’m going to put a rock garden in the front because you and I will have nowhere to sleep when we get home.’ It is absolutely amazing what the human body can do. There were not the comforts of the fridge, TV or a nice hot shower every night, but where you pulled up was where you slept, and I tell you that you slept really well until four o’clock in the morning, when it was time to get up, pack your tent up, get your gear together, have your powdered milk and your Nutri-Grain and go off for another 12 or 13 hours of trekking.

As the trekking guides—that was the word I was looking for: the guides—had never done that trek before, they had warned us that there could be some interesting species of animal on the way. I have to tell you quite simply that there was no shortage of crocodiles. So as not to put the living fear up the children’s parents if they happen to read the Hansard, let me tell you that they were freshwater crocodiles, but we were told that there was a fishing hole where the guides had heard that we could not go into the water. It might only have been a three-foot freshie, but it soon put a shiver up your spine and we learnt to go without a tub that night if we had not bathed in the day.

Also, we were confronted by rogue bulls at Kachana Station. For 16 years, proudly running up and down that highway, I had never heard of Kachana because there is not a road into Kachana Station. You can imagine that, if you want to go into Kachana, you go in and come out by aeroplane. There is no livestock being traded; they are rogue bulls. Even at this fine hour of night, I look across the chamber and, as soon as I mention a rogue bull, I have Senator Heffernan looking at me! I have to tell you, Mr President, that I would rather confront him at 10 o’clock in the chamber that what we had to confront out there! But we were not alone. The kids were absolutely brilliant; they were fantastic. I commend the school and the students.

So that I do not run out of time—and I could talk about it all night—in the short time I have left I would like to thank, firstly, the students: Taryn Friend, Denise Shepley, Teagan Trainor, Nadia Murcha, Lyndal Evans, Joshua Martens, Jordan Hayden, Shaun Hawkes and Jonna Davis. What a fine, outstanding bunch of young Australians! I am sure they did their parents proud. Their parents should be proud of how they conducted themselves, getting us oldies through there as well.

But it could not have happened without the financial and professional support of some fine Western Australian businesspeople, who I would like to take this opportunity to name and thank. I cannot thank them enough. Once again, I thank Messrs George and Medhat Takla. Thanks, mate. I tell you what: you are coming back next year! While I am at it, my good mate JD said that we were not going and that no-one was going again, but he found that George was one year older than him, so JD thought to himself, ‘I’ve got to beat George!’ And George has just told me tonight that JD is not going to beat him because George is going to be back on the trek next year. I would like to thank Mr Ian King and Mr Derek Nathan from the Transport Forum WA, two very fine gentlemen in the transport industry—and that is coming from me; I do have friends on the other side in the transport industry. I would like to thank Mr Malcolm Bradshaw and Mr Brad Geatches from the Westralia Airports Corporation; and Mr Jack Diamond and Mr Paul Kelly from Members Equity—fantastic help, guys; thank you. I thank another good friend of mine on the other side of the transport fence, Mr Marc Cardaci from CFC Holdings; Mr Mario Strazzerri of WA Freight Group; Mr Nick D’Adamo—you see, they all have the similar names to mine; we have a lot of things in common, and they are fine transport people—from Keys Bros Removals; Frank Ferrari from Subiaco Print; and Hugh Davin from Skywest.

To those businesses and individuals, thank you very much. I will come back knocking on your door next year, because I am told that the nine students who did this trek this year have all put in to come back next year. Sadly, they will not be at the school, and there will no room for them, but I believe they have gone back to their school and done nothing but talk about that fantastic adventure that they had through the Kimberley. As I said, everyone talks about Kokoda, and Kokoda is very close to our hearts and always should be—it is a very proud part of our history—but there is also a fantastic part of the world within our own shores, and for other reasons.

I would encourage any Australian to go. I am not looking at Senator McEwen, but I am throwing the message over to my good friend Senator McEwen, who is a well-known trekker and walker: come over, mate; we will take you up there and show you what it is like in the Top End. Once again, to all those supporters, to those students, to the school, I wish them all the very best. I look forward to conducting the same trek next year. This year I am in the gym and I am getting ready.