Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Sunday, along with the Mayor of the City of Casey, I had the pleasure of opening the 10th annual Doveton Show at a brilliant community farm called Myuna Farm, in Doveton. This is held on a Sunday each year and it is held at the same time as the Royal Melbourne Show. This particular show has been an incredibly successful community-driven event and initiative put together by the incredible people in Doveton. This year it attracted a crowd of about 20,000 people. The Doveton Show encompasses and showcases the very best of the Doveton-Eumemmerring Community. It also, importantly for my community, provides a low-cost alternative to the Melbourne Show, as the entry fee is a gold coin donation. The proceeds of the donation then go to the following year's show.

The Doveton Show is an event that is incredibly well supported by the local community. I parked on one of the reserves and it was just amazing to be able to walk with this human tide into Myuna Farm just to see the joy and delight on children's faces and the community. There has obviously been some strife in recent times but you can see, particularly down my way, when you have an incredibly successfully driven community based initiative like this, it brings the community together and that is what we need at this point in time.

The Doveton Show was held for the first time in, I think, September 2005—I think it was 25 September. Initially they thought about 1,000 people would turn up, but in actual fact they got about 5,000. That was to the first show. Over the 10 years, the Doveton Show has established itself as probably the premier local event for the community. It is an incredible event. I wanted to congratulate the Doveton Show events committee. I am not allowed to name them, which I would love to do. It is a committee of six—and they know who they are—that really were the driving forces behind this incredibly successful event, but I am not allowed to name them, so I will not. I would also like to acknowledge the Myuna Farm manager, Steve Hill, who might happen to be the son of one of the committee members, on holding such a marvellous event this year. I would also like to acknowledge the dedicated group of volunteers that symbolise what I think is the best of Doveton. One of my favourite characters at the farm is a spritely 72-year-old sulphur-crested cockatoo called Joey Davis, and I got a chance to catch up with him. He is very popular with the kids.

I want to say, in the time remaining available to me, that there was a recent article in the Berwick News by a former resident of Doveton that talked about the deterioration of Doveton. We had much urbane discussion about how Doveton has basically deteriorated. I did not see that person at the Doveton show—did not see them at all. I would counsel this guy that is out there trashing Doveton at the present period of time in the papers: come down and see the spirit of Doveton. You come and put the Christmas lights up with Ruth Murray and Jenny Colvin; then you can make an informed comment about the wonderful community and the wonderful people of Doveton.