Ms SHARKIE (Mayo) (15:48): I rise today to speak about what has been a terrible tragedy in my community, and I know, sadly, that this has been a shared experience in so many communities in Australia this summer. I have much to say, and I think there is much we need to do, with respect to the recovery and future planning for similar disasters and in recognising how climate change exacerbated these fires. But today, in this place, I want to thank and acknowledge the work of so many in Mayo. Christmas was a time of great fear in my electorate of Mayo as we faced bushfires in the Adelaide Hills and on Kangaroo Island. In South Australia, 20 December was a catastrophic fire day. The temperature was predicted to reach 46 degrees, and the heat was made worse by hot northerly winds and then a predicted wind change in the afternoon. For me, the morning was filled with a foreboding feeling of dread. Around mid-morning on Hollands Creek Road at Cudlee Creek, a tree brought down powerlines that started a blaze that travelled through Lobethal, Kenton Valley, Woodside, Mount Torrens, Charleston, Brukunga and Harrogate. With the heat and the wind, the fire appeared unstoppable. On the same day, fires were started by lightning strikes on the western end of Kangaroo Island. Difficult to access, the fire continued to burn and then flared a couple of weeks later, travelling across the island and encircling the townships of Parndana and Vivonne Bay. The fire engulfed approximately two-thirds of the island, including the beloved Western Districts Memorial Community Sports Centre at Gosse. This fire is now contained but it is not yet extinguished. In total, 185 houses, hundreds upon hundreds of buildings, thousands of livestock, over 60 vineyards and orchards, and millions of wildlife have been lost across the two fire grounds as the fire scorched more than 300,000 hectares. Most tragically though, we lost three people from our community, people who were loved and cherished, and I would like to pay respect to those three, who will forever be missed and deeply loved and longed for by their respective families and communities. Mr Ron Selth, aged 69, was a civil engineer. Mr Selth died at his property in Charleston. Mr Selth is remembered as a loving and generous man in our community. In a statement provided by his family, Mr Selth was described as a man with an 'incredible passion for life'. Mr Selth left behind his partner, Suzy, his children, Johanna, Luke and Jasmine, and their partners, Lachlan, Jo and Scott, and six grandchildren. He was a keen bike enthusiast who was a passionate farmer and a spiritual man devoted to his family. He built a highly successful engineering business that contributed to the design of thousands of buildings in South Australia, mainly in the Adelaide Hills, and is often described as an unforgettable character. On Kangaroo Island we lost father and son, Dick and Clayton Lang. Dick, aged 78, and his youngest son Clayton, aged 43, were found on Saturday 4 January, a day after Kangaroo Island's fires were described as 'virtually unstoppable'. Dick Lang was an experienced adventurer, a tour operator and a bush pilot. He forged a successful adventure business in the rugged and remote Australian outback with his wife, Helen. Dick's son, Clayton Lang, known as 'Clarrie', was one of Adelaide's most respected plastic surgeons, with a specialty interest in hand surgery. One of four sons, born in 1975, Clayton was married to his wife, Christie, an anaesthetist, and has left behind two daughters, Sophia and Madeline. Clayton was senior staff specialist at the QEH Woodville and lead clinician at the hand surgery clinic, focusing on patients with melanoma. He fought for his life and he also spent his whole life saving others. Lives were taken too soon under such horrific circumstances. We lost so many Australians this summer due to the fires. So many were fighting fires, running to danger to protect us. Like the blackened landscape, our hearts in Mayo are scarred. There is a deep sadness in our community. Slowly though we are beginning the process of healing. Through such enormous devastation, I have witnessed the best of humanity in our community. I would like to pay tribute to just a few people and organisations that have done and are continuing to do so much. CFS volunteers did everything they could to save life and property, as did farm firefighting units whose intimate knowledge of the landscape assisted greatly. I saw CFS trucks from the south-east, from the Eyre Peninsula, from the Fleurieu. They came from everywhere. They came from the electorate of Boothby. They gave up their family time at Christmas to assist. I acknowledge Mark Jones, the chief officer of the CFS, and the good work of SAPOL. The Army Reserve arrived in the Hills and on Kangaroo Island. They spent their time clearing roads and burying dead stock. On Kangaroo Island they were also out delivering fodder to inaccessible locations by helicopter. The Oakbank Racing Club held farm fodder in conjunction with Livestock SA. SAVEM, South Australian Veterinary Emergency Management, continue to assist injured animals, and Sam Mitchell and his team on Kangaroo Island are saving koalas and other wildlife. Wildlife organisations outside the fireground are also doing so much, including Mayo's own Minton Farm in Cherry Gardens. In the aftermath of the fire in the Adelaide Hills, Lobethal defence veteran Adam Weinert mobilised a group of locals to create a makeshift recovery centre in the Valley of Praise Retirement Village. The work of this group was extraordinary. Within days they had devised a system that matched up needs with tradespeople, organised donated fodder where it needed to go and organised water, clothes and food. It was astonishing to see. For much of that time Lobethal, in the northern part of the Adelaide Hills, was essentially ringbarked. You couldn't get in or out. I would like to mention other community responses, including Nairne Fire Support group, who evolved out of need and provided an enormous amount of support and resources to families who were impacted by the fire. The goods were sorted at Gary and Rachelle Barlow's business, Stroud Homes, in Mount Barker. The Muslim community came from Adelaide. They arrived with vans to transport the goods out to Nairne. I'd also like to mention Father Thomas from the Mount Barker Anglican Church. All the children in Mount Torrens received Christmas presents because of the good work of that church. The congregation's contribution to the relief effort was amazing and went for weeks. Father Thomas is now volunteering his time putting up fences for BlazeAid. The state government mobilised relief centres at Mount Barker, Highbury and Kingscote. I thank the staff at those relief centres for the support they provided for evacuees in the immediate period after the fires. I must mention the volunteers, including the chaplains, the rapid relief team and Red Cross. On one of my trips to Kangaroo Island I was approached by a Sealink staffer asking if I could drop off a bag of homemade treats to a CFS station: 'Any CFS station, anyone in need,' they said. The goodies were made by mums at the Victor Harbor R-7 primary school. Mum and Victor Harbor local Olivia Knott also organised food and over a thousand dollars' worth of Drakes Supermarkets vouchers on KI, which I collected from Drakes and dropped off to the Kingscote relief centre. They were enormously needed. BlazeAid set up camps at Lobethal and at the Parndana Football Club. Team Rubicon, the veterans group that assists in disasters, is there on the ground right now. Similarly, the Parndana community within a matter of days were organising their own emergency centre, with food, clothes, nappies, water—borne out of necessity—while fires continued around them. I thank every person who assisted others for their generosity—for their donations, the meals they made and delivered out to homes, the working bees, the running of water, the giving of time. Our whole community came together. Wallis Cinemas at Mount Barker kept their doors open on the 20th for anyone who was evacuated. I heard that every creature great and small in cinema 4 was in there. There were no tragedies within the cinema, although there was a little bit of mess to pick up. Mount Barker shopping centre also stayed open. Adelaide Hills Pastured Eggs dropped off box after box of eggs to feed the CFS their breakfast. I'd like to acknowledge my state parliamentary colleagues who are within the seat of Mayo: Dan Cregan, John Gardner, Josh Teague and Leon Bignell. I give a particular shout out to Dan Cregan, who was with me riding shotgun in my car or I in his every day, one of us on the phone and one of us at the wheel. We have all worked together to support our community, as it should be. The diligence and leadership of Alex Zimmerman, the state government appointed disaster recovery coordinator based at Lobethal, and Mike Williams, the appointed recovery coordinator for Kangaroo Island, must be mentioned, as must our local mayors, in particular Mount Barker Mayor Ann Ferguson. Ann originally hails from Kangaroo Island and while supporting her own community, because the areas of Harrogate and Brukunga lie in the Mount Barker council area and have been badly devastated, she also took the time to drive over, onto the ferry and then onto Kangaroo Island, with her car loaded, including with boxes of her own homemade Anzac biscuits. It is these acts of kindness and love that will be our story. We realise we cannot do this alone. We are a region that grows some of the best food in the world. We are a region of beauty that relies heavily on tourism. We will only rebuild with the continued support of the Australian and international community. I am so pleased to support the South Australian government campaign #BookThemOut. But we need a long-term and sustainable tourism campaign. I would urge everyone to book a holiday in South Australia, particularly on Kangaroo Island or in the Adelaide Hills. We still have so much for you to enjoy. And buy our produce. We desperately need this. We are an electorate comprised entirely of small businesses—wine, cheese, milk, honey, apples, pears, confectionery. If all else fails, our gin distilleries on Kangaroo Island and in the Adelaide Hills will be very pleased to take your business. It has been an extraordinary effort by so many. I am so proud of our community of Mayo. We have gone through such sadness, such devastation and such loss. We all know the fire season is not over yet. But, as I drive through our community, I'm heartened to see green shoots—glimmers of hope, and a sign of renewal for all of us.