CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Ms SHARKIE (Mayo) (16:05): South Australia's History Festival has just wrapped up a month of events celebrating people, places and stories that have shaped our state. This year's theme was 'connections', exploring links between generations, communities and experiences. More than 550 events were held across South Australia, including many throughout Mayo, bringing local history to life through walking tours, exhibitions, discussions and unique heritage pieces.

I attended the Our Daily Bread exhibition at Mount Torrens. Many people don't know Mount Torrens is the only heritage listed township in the Adelaide Hills council area. It captured the town's baking and milling heritage through photographs and memorabilia—including the most extraordinary collection of rolling pins I've ever seen—and milling heritage.

The exhibition highlighted how Mount Torrens flour mill, founded in 1853, and Sumner's Bakery, opened in 1903, helped shape both the local economy and identity of the community itself. More than 170 years later, many of the original buildings still stand, and these buildings are more than historic structures. They are reminders of the hard work and community spirit that helped shape Mount Torrens and continues to do so today.

I then attended the Secrets of the Strathalbyn Clock Tower at St Andrew's Uniting Church, in Strathalbyn in the Adelaide Hills. It opened in 1849. It's the oldest surviving Presbyterian church building in South Australia and a reminder of the region's early settlement and prosperity.

The clock tower records generations who have passed through the district. For more than 130 years, visitors have left their names and dates etched into the tower's internal timbers—they think there are around 2,000 names—creating a timeline of local lives and stories. Among those inscriptions are the names and enlistment numbers of three local young men who were light horsemen who served in World War I.

There was a veteran from the Boer War with their name and there were many young men who went off to serve in World War II. These are connections to the sacrifices made by earlier generations. Community fundraising is underway to help restore the clock tower and preserve these important pieces of local history for future generations, and I'm very keen to work with the Strathalbyn community and particularly the committee to see how we can maybe connect to some Department of Veterans' Affairs grants to try and preserve these names, this social history that's so important to all of us.

South Australia's History Festival is a fantastic celebration of our heritage and how it connects us to our communities, and the events at Strathalbyn and Mount Torrens were excellent reminders that local history remains very much alive today.