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Monday, 19 September 2011
Page: 10602

Mr GEORGANAS (Hindmarsh) (10:33): I rise today to speak about a very special club in my electorate, a club of which I am very honoured and lucky to be the patron—the Mellor Park Tennis Club in the suburb of Lockleys. I attended their open day not that long ago. They invited the community and the residents close by and it was attended by many people, including young people and families, and everyone had a shot at hitting the ball with the racket. It was a great day.

The club itself has been there for many years as a facility allowing local residents to participate in the great sport of tennis, whether people play it seriously or just for fun. In fact, I remember many years ago going down there myself and having a hit when I was a kid and a teenager, because I lived close by. I would like to congratulate everyone involved in the club; the president, Robbie Tregoweth; the vice president, Chris Brock; and the club captain, Anthony Mezic. They are doing an enormous amount of work on promoting the club in the area, on attracting new members on a regular basis and on ensuring that they let the community know about the club and that they are there for people to participate in that wonderful sport of tennis.

The club is currently seeking funding to refurbish and do some resurfacing of their tennis courts. It is interesting that the club courts are on the edge of Mellor Park, which is a park with massive gum trees. A couple of these gum trees are right on the edge of these courts. Fortunately or unfortunately they are significant trees, and they are lifting up the surface of the court. Therefore, we recently made representations to the council to ask for some funding. I was very pleased when the City of West Torrens confirmed that they are going to provide $60,000 in funding to resurface this particular project. You cannot cut down the trees because they are significant and beautiful 100- to 150-year-old gum trees, so they are going to lift the surface above the ground and keep the surface at a raised level so the roots do not interfere with the surface and they can continue to enjoy playing tennis on these wonderful courts in this wonderful park. I know the club are also in discussions with Tennis SA to see what further funding they can be provided with to pay for the rest of the project. I look forward to a very, very positive outcome. The club, as I said, services the community in a great way to allow people to exercise and to take up the wonderful sport of tennis. I wish the club members an enjoyable and very successful summer season, which is about to begin.