Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia's National Heritage List was put in place in 2003 as an amalgamation or consolidation of three national heritage lists so that we could have one which identified the most culturally significant sites in our nation. This is a very important list and has on it many places that would be well known to everyone. It also includes some very significant other places such as the Cascades Female Factory Yard 4 North, the Moree Baths and Swimming Pool, the Mount William Stone Hatchet Quarry and the Echuca Wharf, all very important sites indeed, but in all of these sites there is a significant omission, and that is that there is not a single site in the city of Geelong which is on Australia's National Heritage List. This is a disgrace.

Geelong is a deeply historic city in Australia. As I have said before in this place, it was meant to be and would now be Victoria's capital but for some 19th century Melbourne shysters who doctored a map to show Melbourne closer to Ballarat than Geelong, which of course it is not. On the back of that, investment was put into the port of Melbourne rather than the port of Geelong, and this is a matter which still causes some consternation to those of us in Geelong today.

When Australia rode on the back of the sheep, most of that trade came through Geelong. It was Australia's wool capital. Cunningham Pier was a critical place for a lot of that trade. The wool stores along the waterfront are historic and now form part of Deakin University. Customs House is one of the oldest customs houses in Australia. But for me, amidst all of that history, the greatest connection between the people of Geelong and Corio Bay, the water, is Eastern Beach. At the site of Eastern Beach there has been continuous usage since the 1840s. It was first proposed to build a precinct there in 1914. Works commenced in 1927 and it was opened in 1939. What we have now is a shark-proof enclosure in Corio Bay with a boardwalk and a kids pool. It is a wonderful art deco construction by the architect Harry Hare.

It is used and has been continuously used since the 1840s. Denis Walter's Carol's by the Bay is held there every year. Indeed, just last Sunday, there were thousands of people there—as there often are with major events—for the Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon in which my daughter Bella competed. It is symbolic of Australia's connection with the sea—as is the Bondi swimming pool, the North Sydney swimming pool and, more recently, the wonderful Cairns swimming pool. I might say that Bondi is on the National Heritage List.

We have had a tough 12 months. I reiterate a call I have made here on numerous occasions: that Eastern Beach should be put on Australia's National Heritage List, so that the omission, which is Geelong not being there, is rectified. (Time expired)