Zoe McKenzie MP
Shadow Cabinet Secretary
Shadow Assistant Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations
Member for Flinders
SPEECH | POINT NEPEAN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION FIELD STATION COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY
Badcoe Hall, Quarantine Station, Point Nepean National Park
29 April 2026
I would like to start by echoing those who preceded me in the beautiful thanks to Aunty Sonia Weston for that extraordinary smoking ceremony in front of Badcoe Hall, and her stories of her elders at this place. What a privilege for us to hear her stories and her fine representation of the Bunurong Land Council.
I also recognise them, because they haven’t been recognised yet, the good folk from Parks Victoria, who are the caretakers of this beautiful part of Australia, each and every day.
I recognise Professors Jordan Nash, Mark Cassidy AM of Monash, Professor Tim Dunne of Melbourne, my dear friend Professor Craig Jeffrey, formerly of Melbourne, now of Monash, and many other great professors in the room. I recognise my new friend, Leo Fincher-Johnson, with whom I trod softly on the way to this building, Â who has been working on this project as its Director since he was a fresher at university, and now is here to see its commencement, from his retirement!
There are so many professors and imminent researchers in this room with us today, what should we call a great gathering of professors? A pod of professors? A university? Today, I will just call it “welcome to professorial paradise.”
I recognise three great professors who can’t hear with us today: Professor Greg Hunt, Professor Glyn Davis, and Professor Margaret Gardner, three people whose stewardship made this project possible with their passion, their partnership between the two universities, and their determination to get this project realised.
I will also mention Nick Greece, who has been a quiet achiever behind this project: a man who loves the Southern Mornington Peninsula, and who was instrumental went back in 2022, when we had what I will generously call a “hiccup”, when the new Labor Government cancelled the final instalment of funds to this project. Nick rang me almost immediately and said, “I’ve got a plan. Let’s get working on it”. And so together working with Nick and the two universities, the universities generously and bravely stepped forward to commit the funds that this project needed to be realised.
I salute, celebrate, and thank our two great Victorian universities, global in their footprint, for coming into the rescue, and today making this project a reality.
As Professor Jordan Nash said in his opening remarks, I’ve been terribly excited about this project since before I was elected.
This park has always held a very special place in the heart of the people of the Southern Mornington Peninsula. I remember, as a child, I would have been 10, probably,  standing at the gates when this site was still the home of Officer Cadet School. I would put my face up to the gates thinking, much exciting things must happen in there. And, of course, anyone who like me is an avid follower of Australian politics, knows that this is the spot from which then Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in 1967, never to be found again. We all walk past Cheviot Beach in homage and reflection of what happened here that summer.
This park was also a place of refuge during the Spanish flu, and equally a place of refuge for the Kosovo refugees in the late 90s in the buildings up the hill.
Today, I love this park for its walks, and as a scuba diver, I enjoy the wonders of her waters. I have always celebrated the uniqueness, and I’m so glad that through this initiative, that uniqueness will be shared with the world.
Through this project, the Point Nepean Research and Education Field Station will bring life to this part of Victoria.
This place is filled with stories, and through this project you will bring curious minds to the stories of Auntie Sonia, but also to this park as it is lived and seen today: the quarantine buildings, the history of the Ticonderoga, (and if you haven’t read Hellship, and you plan to work here, you really must); but equally the stories of those who enjoy this park every day – including the good folk of Flinders out there playing croquet on the lawns.
These stories will all become part of what these two universities will see and feel and breathe as you bring life, purpose, curiosity, and knowledge to this quarter of the world.
So today’s commencement means a great deal to us locals, and I thank you.
I shall finish today with the words of one great local, indeed my friend, Greg Hunt, to whom this project meant to so very much, and he’s sorry he cannot be with you today, but he sent me some words this morning:
“I’m delighted that 25 years of community and parliamentary work to protect point of being and secure its future as a national centre of posting climate has come to fruition.
The wait, however, will be worth it, as my hope and belief is that 100 years from now, the field station will have grown to be an international marine and climate centre, contributing to local knowledge and global research. Thank you.”
ENDS.
