Mr LLOYD (9:22 PM) —Tonight I rise to pay tribute to the rural fire service and the many volunteers in my electorate of Robertson. Whilst it may be just coming into spring and the bushfire season is not yet upon us, we all vividly remember the terrible fire risk, fire damage and the loss that occurred in the bushfires of last summer. My electorate of Robertson covers 785 square kilometres and much of that is made up of national parks, including the Bouddi National Park, 1,216 hectares; the Brisbane Water National Park, 11,455 hectares; the Popran National Park, 3,970 hectares; and the Dharug National Park, 14,850 hectares. You can see that a vast majority of my electorate is made up of national parks and natural bushland, and it is a huge fire risk.

During the summer of last year, we suffered quite considerable bushfires in our area, like many parts of Australia. Of course, Canberra suffered horrific losses as well in the bushfires. In my electorate of Robertson, we had no property loss. There were many hundreds of hectares of bushland burnt out, but we suffered no property loss and, more importantly, no loss of life or injury. This was no accident. It was simply a result of the dedicated volunteers and the valuable training and the experience that these volunteers receive in the rural bushfire network. Often many of us tend to take this wonderful organisation, this world-leading organisation of volunteers, for granted, and we only call on them when we see the smoke and know the bushfires are a risk.

In the electorate of Robertson, we are indebted to the hundreds of volunteers involved in many of the brigades throughout the region. In Robertson, we have the Avoca Beach Brigade with Captain Roy Dimond, and the Bar Point Brigade with Captain John Hawkes. The Bar Point Brigade has no road access. It is one of the isolated communities on the Hawkesbury River. In fact, it is one of the newest rural fire services and I was privileged to be at the opening recently with the rural fire commissioner, Phil Koperberg. There is the Copacabana Brigade with Captain Alan Lundie; the Empire Bay Brigade with Captain Bruce Sharples; the Erina Brigade with Captain Gary Walker; and the Fire Boat Brigade, which covers a lot of the waterways in the Central Coast. Many of our communities have no road access, as I mentioned, and these fire boats are an essential part of our fire defences. That brigade has Captain Mick Hawkins. There is the Kariong Brigade with Captain Barry Myers; the Killcare Brigade with Captain Steve Biddulph; the MacMasters Beach Brigade with Captain Peter Williamson; the Mangrove Mountain Brigade with Captain Chris Holland; the Matcham-Holgate Brigade with Captain Don Kennedy; the Mooney Mooney Bush Fire Brigade, in my own town of Mooney Mooney, with Captain Stuart Dunk; the Mount Penang Brigade with Captain Brian Williams; the Mount White Brigade with Captain Ray Chancellor; the Narara Brigade with Captain Peter McKechnie; the Patonga Brigade with Captain Mark Zwan; the Somersby Brigade with Captain Tami Oliver; the Pearl Beach Brigade with Captain Bob Gunn; out to Spencer, another isolated community in the west of my electorate, with Captain Hugh Woodbury; the Bays Brigade with Captain Chris Francis; the Wamberal Brigade with Captain Grant Robertson; and the Wendoree Brigade with Captain Ron Jollow.

You can see that we are well protected from bushfires in my electorate. Again, I want to pay tribute to the many hundreds of volunteers in the rural fire service who have given many hundreds of hours of dedicated service to the people of the Central Coast and have protected our properties for many years. I know that they are already back-burning and preparing themselves for the coming bushfire season. Without these volunteers, I am sure that many properties and lives would be put at risk during the coming bushfire season. On behalf of all the constituents in Robertson, I want to thank these volunteers not only from the rural fire service but from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, the SES, the coastal patrol and Gosford City Council as well. (Time expired)