Page 1820 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 April 2009
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the largest of which was 90. I understand deeply, having lived in nothing but a completely rural, isolated setting and, for my teenage years, in a village of 90 people, the nature of life, the social interactions and everything that it is that a village has to offer, the tos and fros, the waxing and waning, the sustainability and the steps that villages will go to to evolve as life evolves, moves and changes.
The stresses that have been mentioned and that we are aware of in relation to all of our villages, of course, are stresses that villages, towns and rural cities and communities deal with every day in the context of their sustainability, the quality of life that can be delivered as a result, most particularly, of their size and the nature and capacity of the community, the ability to sustain a commercial operation or a school.
In fact, my father was a school teacher. My father’s first two schools were closed by the New South Wales education department. The first two schools I attended were closed whilst I attended them in rural New South Wales. These are issues that are part and parcel of a village or rural or community life.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.43): The ACT’s villages of Hall and Tharwa, along with other areas, long precede, as Ms Hunter said, the larger city of Canberra and provide local residents and the surrounding districts with important community facilities and businesses and commercial services. They have been the focal point for local residents and the surrounding districts for education, church and social gatherings, sporting events, field days and a range of other activities that have become the tradition of small villages and hamlets around Australia.
These small villages often face considerable challenges due, in the main part, to their small population and their reduced general resources. Because of their rural nature, they face drought, economic downturns and an ageing population and even uncaring and unthinking government policies. But villages and their people are tough and resilient and are, in the truest sense of the word, communities. They care and support for each other and they pool their resources to ride out the threats, the uncaring policy actions and all the other issues that would threaten their sustainability and their viability.
Herein lies the message: villages and their people are tough and resilient. They are, in the truest sense, community builders. As large communities, through the government, a place like Canberra needs to understand exactly what a village community is, what its special needs are and what are the challenges of village life.
I would like to look at the village of Hall in my electorate. Here we have a village, as Ms Hunter has said, which considerably predates Canberra itself. It has changed much over the years, and this is one of its greatest strengths. While it is tucked away on the other side of the Barton Highway, with a population of fewer than 350, the village of Hall has well and truly put itself on the map.
It was the Hall village and its people and its progress association that started the national sheepdog trials which have gone from strength to strength. It is the home of the Hall village band. It is now famous for its Hall village markets, drawing huge crowds every time they are held. The heritage and history of Hall, one of the first
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