Tuesday, 30 July 2024

Mildura electorate events

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (16:43): It has been a long, cold winter thus far, but that has not stopped me or the rest of the region. The past few weeks I have attended many events, like the launch of The Settler’s Lot written by Henry Tankard AM. I shout out to Mr Tankard, his wife Pam and his aunty Carol. This book describes the difficulties faced by the founders of the Mildura colony, the state government and early settlers and how it almost failed. It is a fascinating account and a great read.

The Christie Centre hosted the Big Balloon Bash Night Glow to celebrate 70 years as part of their major fundraiser, an extraordinary event with nearly 12,000 people in attendance. Congratulations to Florence and the Christie Centre team. It was a magnificent way to celebrate their anniversary of being a brilliant organisation and social enterprise.

The Penrite Hattah Desert Race was held as usual over the first weekend of July, and with 850 entries it was the biggest and one of the best, in my opinion, races we have seen, with local rider Callum Norton winning outright and Ken Reed finally riding for a factory team in his 24th Hattah. Well done, North West Victorian Motorcycle Club.

The Mildura Racing Club celebrated the running of the 100th Mildura Cup a couple of weeks ago, and it was terrific to see the Minister for Racing in attendance and Jimmy the Bear win the cup.

I also visited the Murrayville P–12 school recently and spoke with students who were devastated they could not take part in Youth Parliament recently. We have been hatching a plan though to take Parliament to the most isolated school in the state, so watch this space.

The Robinvale–Euston Rotary Club recently awarded Siua a Paul Harris Fellow at their recent transition dinner for his service. And Josh Waters finished fourth at Suzuka.