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- 5 April 2005
Gemboree 2005
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Page: 15003
Mr PETER BLACK (Murray-Darling) [4.47 p.m.]: I recognise the affiliation of Mr Acting-Speaker Mills with the Royal Australian Chemical Institute [RACI]. I am delighted to report that as member No. 8480 of the Geological Society of Australia, as well as a member of the RACI, I had the great pleasure of attending the forty-first Gemboree held at Bathurst from Easter Friday to Easter Monday last. It was an absolutely outstanding success, and I commend the endeavours of the honourable member for Bathurst and the Minister for Mineral Resources. The Minister made available to this Gemboree a great display. Bathurst proved to be a popular centre. Apart from the members of the various mineralogical clubs, faceting clubs, fossil clubs and palaeontological clubs of Australia, by Saturday afternoon 1,900 people had passed through the gates of Bathurst Showground to see the great displays.
In particular, I mention Martin Rosser, He Xin Jian from China, Bill Kettley, Dehne McLoughlin, Ben Nicolson of re-opening Tsumeb fame in south-west Africa, Peter Beckwith, Irvine Hay, Rob Sielecki, John Weir and Arthur Roffey, the convener of the show from Londonderry in Sydney. I also mention many of the tailgaters, including Allan Arnold, Harvey Healey, who works for the Minister for Mineral Resources, and Mark Rheinberger. On Easter Friday the honourable member for Bathurst took great joy in looking around the tailgating area to see what was on display and what was for sale or to swap, and how this hobby, fixation or fascination for many, works.
The Minister and the Department of Mineral Resources were represented at the Gemboree by John Chapman, who was originally from South Africa and has visited my minerals room at Broken Hill. He did an absolutely superb job. As I said, by the Saturday afternoon 1,900 people had visited the department's display. The other person at the display was Kevin Capnerhurst, who is now based at Orange. Kevin came to Australia from Canada and is a great collector of minerals, notwithstanding his interest working through the department. The display attracted a great deal of interest. A bismuth specimen, which is among the jewels held by the department at three locations around Sydney, was the subject of an offer of $5,000.
If the Minister is short of a few bob he has the crown jewels there, but I would not suggest for a moment that they should be sold. The 2006 Gemboree will be at Claremont, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania. In 2007 it will be at Gatton in Queensland, in 2008 at Murray Bridge in South Australia, and in 2009 at a Victorian location. In 2010 or 2011 the Gemboree will return to New South Wales. I would commend to the Minister that when it is held at Broken Hill we have a similar display with the same kind of enthusiastic members of his department promoting this hobby and interest.
Many graduate geologists attended the show. Many councils support fossicking clubs in Sydney, such as that at Bankstown. A new club has been formed with the collaboration of Canada Bay, and such clubs are quite prolific. Fossicking is a fascinating hobby that captures the natural wonders and beauties of earth science. New South Wales, through the Department of Mineral Resources, has been providing good maps and mineral deposit information for years. New South Wales is blessed with great collecting opportunities.
A few that were promoted at Bathurst include the sapphire and diamond fossicking areas of New England and south of Oberon, the quartz collection areas from old mines, numerous road aggregate quarries, and zeolite minerals from western New South Wales and New England. I conclude by referring to that great mineral-collecting area of New South Wales, Broken Hill. I am proud to say, speaking as a chemist, to you, Mr Acting-Speaker, a geologist or chemist, that I now have 80 different species collected from that great centre of propriety and sensibility, Broken Hill. [Time expired.]
Mr KERRY HICKEY (Cessnock—Minister for Mineral Resources) [4.52 p.m.]: It was a great honour for my department to be involved in the national Gemboree event held over the Easter long weekend at Bathurst. It is very pleasing to hear another member speak so positively about the part played by the department. The claim that only 1,900 visitors passed through the stall of the Department of Minerals may be short: I am told that up to 4,000 or 5,000 people in total attended the Gemboree. That shows the interest in minerals across New South Wales. Bathurst is a wonderful part of the State to visit. Its very dedicated and hard-working member of Parliament, Mr Gerard Martin, the Government Whip, promoted the Gemboree very well, and it was promoted throughout the media in the Bathurst-Orange region.
Fossickers and lapidarists from across the world, from all walks of life, attended the Gemboree. This shows a strong commitment to our minerals sector. The department put a lot of hard work into the display. The honourable member for Broken Hill can be assured that the next Gemboree held in New South Wales will be supported and promoted by the department. Not long ago the department launched a map of the Mole Tableland, which is 50 kilometres north of Glen Innes. The department informed people what they can do when they are fossicking in accordance with the legislation. It is great to see the activities of the department being promoted so strongly by the honourable member for Murray-Darling and the honourable member for Bathurst. [Time expired.]
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