Monday, 3 June 2024
Government House, Sydney.
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales

Bujari Gamarruwa, Diyn Babana, Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of these lands and waterways, I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging. I extend that respect to the Elders of all parts of our State from which you have travelled.

Member for Coffs Harbour; Chair, Board, Staff, young people from Pathfinders; supporters, eora bujari – good people, all. distinguished guests, friends all,

After clocking up nearly 500 kms on the road over the last week, today is the day to relax and have some fun at the last staging post of the 2024 Pumpkin run, here at Government House Sydney, and to be royally looked after.

One of the best things we experience here at Government House is the wonderful people we meet from all over the state and learn what they are doing in and for the community. We also learn many fun facts which one day we’ll have to turn into Government House Trivial Pursuit.

Today, we have lots of fun facts about pumpkins:

First: is a pumpkin a vegetable or a fruit – those who thinking vegetable – wrong – it’s a fruit – indeed a berry – because the seeds are inside and the pumpkin itself grows from a flower - true botanical fact. [1]

Second: on average how many seeds inside a pumpkin – 4 choices – 20? 200? 500? 1000? -  500 is the correct answer - each weighing only 1/5^th of a gram[2].

Which brings to mind that song that I think everyone in this room could sing – the Kevin Carmody and Paul Kelly song composed around a campfire more than 30 years ago.[3]From little things big things grow.

That song resonates for another reason – because it was just one simple but very profound idea that started the Pumpkin Run when one of the young people supported by Pathfinder asked Alan[4] whether there was something that could be grown at Tilbuster Station[5] that could be shared with local people doing it tough.[6]

From that one profound suggestion the big things that have grown are:

• The Pumpkin Run has been ‘running’ for 10 years
• This year, 8000 of those little 1/5^th of a gram seeds were sown to produce over 10 tonnes of pumpkins. That’s more than the estimated weight of the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found – ‘Scotty’ from Saskatchewan[7]!
• Then there’s that massive effort you, the young people from Pathfinders have put in: planting, weeding pruning, watering, fertilising, harvesting and cooking – all so that you can help care for others as you also cooked and shared with communities up and down the coast from Armidale to Sydney[8].

Thank you for sharing your story – and your pumpkins – with us: Chef has been busy turning out tasty treats so that we can show our appreciation to you and reciprocate a little of the care you’ve shown to so many others.

On the savoury side, he’s made Pumpkin and Cheddar Fritters, Crostini with smoked Butternut Pumpkin Puree, and Pumpkin and Ricotta Arancini. To show off the wonderful versatility of the pumpkin, there’s also the all-important sweets, including what Chef has called an ‘American-Style Thanksgiving Spiced Pumpkin Tart’ – to celebrate the end of another successful Pumpkin Run, and thanking everyone involved in this year’s effort.

To Alan, the Board and all the staff, and volunteers from Pathfinders and your supporters, the warmest of thankyous for everything you do: for the programs supporting community, especially young people; for seeing their potential and providing the opportunities to grow and be empowered, not only with skills and support, but also the chance to give back to community, to connect and help, and to see the cumulative benefits little acts of kindness bring.

To the young people here this morning and all those along the way who have helped at every stage of this year’s Pumpkin Run – thank you. I’m sure you know the positive impact you have made, and will continue to make, on so many people. Your efforts are truly inspirational

[1] Ada McVean and Cassandra Lee, ‘Bananas are Berries. Raspberries are Not’, MacGill Online, 6 December 2017, available here

[2] D.C. Joshi, S.K. Das, R.K. Mukherjee, Abstract for ‘Physical Properties of Pumpkin Seeds’, available here.

[3] “Paul [Kelly] and I had gone away on a camping trip in about ’91 or something and we just kind of pulled it out around the campfire. Paul had a good chord progression and I thought it would be good to tell a little story over it. So, by about 2 o’clock in the morning, we had a six-minute song:” Kev Carmody, quoted in an interview with Robert Dunstan, Rip It Up, available here. The song tells the story of Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji people’s struggle for equality and land rights after their walk off at the Wave Hill property in 1966, culminating in Gough Whitlam’s visit and return of their land; the lyrics are now: Ce Benedict and Rudi Bremer, ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow: The story of a ‘cultural love song’”, ABC Online, available here

[4] Mr Alan Brennan, Chief Executive Officer, Pathfinders

[5] Tilbuster Station was gifted to Pathfinders in 2011 by Dr Marie Delaney, who wanted the property to be used for child and youth development, and the support of families. Disadvantaged young people participate in a range of agricultural, horticultural and trade skills programs such as crop and vegetable production, animal husbandry, beef cattle production, fencing, welding and building construction. Programs are designed to enhance self-esteem, skills and work readiness of young people and to instil the values of belonging, mastery, independence and generosity: Pathfinders website, available here

[6] “I do believe the humble pumpkin was an idea that was born from one of the young persons in care who asked the CEO, Alan Brennan, and ran the idea past him of us trying to grow something and share something with those less fortunate, so I think that’s how it kind of started off”: Anthony Simmons (Resources Coordinator at Tilbuster Station), quoted in Kate Brown, ‘Pathfinder Pumpkins Head out for Another Year’, New England Times Online, 25 May 2024, available here

[7] Found in 1991 and estimated to weigh 8,870 kg when it was alive. Palaeontologists from the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Ontario, however, have recently presented modelling suggesting that T. Rexes may have weighed as much as 15,000 kg: Jennifer Nalewicki, ‘T. Rex Could have been 70% Bigger than Fossils Suggest, New Study Shows’, Live Science online, 17 November 2022, available here

[8] Stops include: the Uralla Neighbourhood Centre; the Armidale Neighbourhood Centre and Seventh Day Adventist Church; the Soup Place, Pete’s Place, and Coffs Harbour Women’s Refuge in Coffs Harbour; Taree Community Kitchen; Soul Hub, OzHarvest, and Allambi Care in Newcastle; OzHarvest and Newtown Mission in Sydney.