Mr DEAN (Windermere) - Madam President, this morning I want to briefly talk about a very successful enterprise at George Town, and I spoke about this previously when it was in its infancy but it has now moved on, the Bass and Flinders Centre . This centre has gone ahead in leaps and bounds and is now seen as a must-see sight for tourists visiting the Tamar region. In fact the way things are changing with this attraction, it is likely to feature as a Tasmanian must-see for any tourists coming into this State. The building housing a replica of the Huon pine vessel, the New Norfolk, is in the complex. It is now a magnificent building, the original George Town settlement fully restored, to become a truly focal point of the Windermere electorate. I am proud of it, as are all of those people who are involved in the building of the centre, as are all those people that visit the centre, Madam President, including those people of George Town - absolutely proud of what has happened there.

I want to quote from a document provided to me as to some of the things that have happened there, and this comes from the management team:

'Excluding those people who come in for dinners, lunches or general functions, we have had about 11,000 visitors in the last two years. If we were to add in those who came to a function that number would rise closer to 20,000 people.

It's become a springboard for focussing tourism in GT. We now can offer the Tourist a whole day of entertainment together with the Pilot Station and the Watch House. We have now joined with the Penguins in the revamped Caravan Park to have tourists stay overnight.

We had a Federal Government grant of $275,000, a State Government grant of $120,000, two Tasmanian Community Fund grants totalling about $100,000, funds and favours from local community of about $120,000' -

so the community got right behind it -

'$20,000 from the GT Council to fix up the street, plus thousands of man days from the community volunteers'.

An enormous amount of community effort was put into establishing the centre and making it the success that it is.

'Countless events. Corporate dinners eg the Examiner, Temco, International Soroptimists, George Town Council; School Christmas events.'

The list goes on of the number of people that are making this a place to be for functions and activities and dinners.

'We have had hundreds of volunteers through the centre. All the build work was done by volunteers, the catering is done by volunteers, we have a core group of daily volunteers, we have a special program to have "work for the dole" volunteers, we have just started a junior volunteer program to give grade 9/10 children exposure to volunteering and the tourism business.'

It is incredible; an enormous number of people are involved.

'We run a cinema club that meets once a month for dinner and a movie and have recently installed a larger facility to be able to treble the capacity of the cinema; we run a catering training program with Drysdale College to enable people to gain catering qualifications that they would otherwise be unable to afford; we have a practical training program that exposes "work for the dole" folk to the Tourism Industry.'

It is incredible.

Madam President, I just want to mention some of those people that have made this happen. It is very important and I know that I will miss some but I want to mention a few. Mr Tim Cory, who is the director and curator and also a councillor at George Town, Mr Don Mackrill, director, and Mr Peter Hale, another director, have put in enormous manhours to make this work and still attend this centre.

There is a meet-and-greet team, a whole group of people, a very important catering team, maintenance, junior volunteers and overseas volunteers. An incredible number of people are involved.

In conclusion, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the George Town Football Club on their eighth successive premiership of the NTFA football. It is an incredible feat, and I think would almost be a State record.

Mr Aird - A national record, isn't it?

Mr DEAN - A national record. I think Woodsdale in the member for Apsley's area won seven or eight premierships straight as well. George Town are on a roll. It is difficult for me because I played in Rocherlea, which is also in my electorate, so I had to have a win whatever happened. I congratulate that team on that magnificent win. The Bass and Flinders Centre is a must-see. If you have not seen it then please go to the centre; you will enjoy it and have a great time.