I look forward to seeing you all at Robinvale’s centenary celebrations. Robinvale began as the business centre for the local wheat farming district and while the crops have shifted to grapes, olives, carrots and almonds – to name a few – farming remains at the core of Robinvale’s identity.  Robinvale’s horticultural transformation owes a lot to the visionaries and migrants – particularly Italian and Greek settlers - who irrigated in Robinvale’s early years on the river flats, and then beyond.  It is a crying shame that the Albanese Labor Government is undermining irrigation, buying back 450 gigalitres more water when the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder already carries over 30 per cent of their unused water every year.

Robinvale’s story is Australia’s story: resilient pioneering, innovation and hard work, honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice (hence ‘Vale Robin’), the vital contribution of migrants and uncertainty about the future. Towns like Robinvale have growth potential but city-centric thinking limits service delivery to Melbourne, Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong.

Whether Robinvale’s next 100 years see boom-times like the 1950s and 1960s could very well depend on who governs in Canberra and Spring Street at the dawn of Robinvale’s second century.

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