Mrs MARKUS (5:03 PM) —I rise today to honour the 200th anniversary of Lachlan Macquarie’s tenure as Governor of New South Wales. Before I begin I would like to briefly highlight the Macquarie Youth Leadership Forum, an initiative to invest in the next generation of leaders in our community. This year I named it in honour of Lachlan Macquarie. It is my hope that the 80 students expected to attend have been inspired by his example.

Lachlan Macquarie commenced his governorship on 1 January 1810. There are ten Macquarie towns in New South Wales and four of those—Windsor, Pitt Town, Richmond and Wilberforce—are in my electorate. Castlereagh is also nearby. In the Macquarie electorate we feel that we are very much at the heart of Lachlan and Elizabeth’s story. We have been celebrating this momentous occasion throughout the year. The celebrations focus on Macquarie’s vision and his influence on agriculture, art and the life of the colony.

We commenced the celebrations in 2009 with the launch of the Macquarie Rose. The roses are planted in the grounds of the Deerubbin Centre and are flourishing. Recently we marked the occasion with a luncheon hosted by the Hawkesbury Race Club and on Sunday, 10 October we met at the Governor Lachlan Macquarie statue in McQuade Park, Windsor, to launch the Elizabeth Macquarie Iris. Although I cannot thank everyone, I would like to very briefly acknowledge all the staff at the Hawkesbury City Council and also the council’s Macquarie 2010 bicentenary committee; Marie Sullivan and the Macquarie 2010 committee; and the Governor of New South Wales, Marie Bashir. Without their contributions this bicentenary would have passed us by unacknowledged. They have done a great service to the community by keeping the legacy of Macquarie alive.

On Friday Pitt Town will come alive with the Freedom of Entry to the City Parade set to take place. This highly anticipated event on the Hawkesbury calendar will celebrate both Governor Macquarie’s bicentenary as well as the 85th anniversary of the Richmond RAAF base. The first RAAF aircraft DH9 biplane landed at the RAAF base on 30 June 1925 and the RAAF has since become a pillar of our community. The Freedom of Entry to the City Parade will take place thanks to the hard work of the Pitt Town Progress Association, the Pitt Town Public School and many local churches and businesses. The last Freedom of Entry to the City was held in 1990, marking this as the 20th anniversary of the exercise. The RAAF band and 200 RAAF personnel will march through Pitt Town as a colourful and poignant reminder of the traditional heritage of our local area. It will be a profound tribute not only to our local RAAF community but also to the legacy of Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth.