Arboretum names new pavilion after Margaret Whitlam

Jethro said :

Based on the photograph, one may wonder if a more pressing issue is the fact that the arboretum appears to be lacking actual trees.

I’ve been saying that for sometime actually.

😀 Wonderful tribute to a wonderful person.

The whole thing is a joke, a facility that charges $200 a photo is so far out of touch with the real world should be named after another out of touch with reality person, “What’s inflation” M. Whitlam.

Don’t know if you are allowed to say it on The RiotACT, but the word that comes to mind is WANKERS

Based on the photograph, one may wonder if a more pressing issue is the fact that the arboretum appears to be lacking actual trees.

Despite Whitlam’s aura of caring for the little people, they were as expendable to him as to any other politician. So as one of those expendable little nobodies I could do without seeing the Whitlam name attached to venues around my hometown.

But apart from that, I really don’t see the relevance anyway. Menzies Walk is fair enough. Off the top of my head wasn’t Menzies quite involved in Canberra developing from an artificially created city to a place people call home? I remember a story about his daughter complaining about the lack of footpaths making it difficult to get around with the pram? So naming a footpath in the Parliamentary Triangle after him seems appropriate. I’m going to check dungfungus’s link to see I’m right.

The better choices for a name for the arboretum pavillion in my opinion would have been either Marion Mahony Griffin, someone with a connection to botany or Canberra’s history or both, or a relevant indigenous name.

I think I’m going to refer to it as the Hoo-Ha Pavillion as suggested in the first reply. 🙂

dungfungus said :

This sets an undesirable precedent.
The place is supposed to be an arboretum not a memorial theme park for apolitical figures.
If buildings have to be named why can’t people with a botanical or Canberra-centric background be recognised? What has Margaret Whitlam ever done for Canberra apart from being a part time resident here? I wasn’t aware she was an author either.
This move ensures the naming of other buildings there will be overweighted with people from the non-conservative side of politics. I can just imagine “The Bob Brown Biodegradable Toilet Pavillion” etc.

Would you prefer “The Fire Before the Big Fire Memorial Hut”

Yay, the Whitlam-cult continues – paid for by the kind taxpayers of the ACT!

So, do you exit the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion through the John Kerr Memorial doors??

MissChief said :

Or there’s this idea…

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/follies-that-might-have-been-20130324-2go02.html

a long overdue memorial to Marion Griffin.

Another good suggestion, particularly given Marion Griffin’s aesthetic appreciation of the Canberra landscape.

Another option might have been a suitable indigenous name.

Postalgeek said :

Maybe a nice quiet stroll along the R G Menzies Memorial Walk by the lake might help give this none-issue some perspective.

The reasons the NCA named the RG Menzies Memorial Walk are at this link http://www.nationalcapital.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=211&Itemid=201
It’s a bit of long bow to compare Margaret Whitlam’s contribution to Canberra to that of Menzies.

Or there’s this idea…

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/follies-that-might-have-been-20130324-2go02.html

a long overdue memorial to Marion Griffin.

Maybe a nice quiet stroll along the R G Menzies Memorial Walk by the lake might help give this none-issue some perspective.

Benaresq said :

HiddenDragon said :

I don’t (really don’t) want to make a political point here, but there are other less prominent women who might have been more appropriate – Nancy Burbidge, for instance.

There is already a Burbridge Amphitheatre at the Botanic Gardens.

So what? There is also a Manning Clark Theatre and a Manning Clark House in Canberra (another Labor man).
Naming the buiding the Nancy Burbridge Pavilion would have been most appropriate.
The way things are going, the arboretum itself will probably be named after our current prime minister who forked out a lot of public money towards its development. Next thing they will be propagating shoots from the Tree of Knowledge to plant all over the aboretum.
And somehow the names of Stanhope and Mackay will have to be prominently involved.
I would like to know what the current expenditure is (to the nearest 100 million dollars).

Another example of Labour using public money to glorify their own. Hopefully the building will be named something more appropriate when Labour is gone. I like the idea of a Canberra based botanist. I wonder if the Greens were asked what they thought.

I love how this city is so accepting and positive on issues that really have no bearing on an otherwise small sheltered world.

Congratulations to the Whitlam family. I bet you’re all proud as punch to have your mother/grandmother recognized in such a way.

HiddenDragon said :

I don’t (really don’t) want to make a political point here, but there are other less prominent women who might have been more appropriate – Nancy Burbidge, for instance.

There is already a Burbridge Amphitheatre at the Botanic Gardens.

This sets an undesirable precedent.
The place is supposed to be an arboretum not a memorial theme park for apolitical figures.
If buildings have to be named why can’t people with a botanical or Canberra-centric background be recognised? What has Margaret Whitlam ever done for Canberra apart from being a part time resident here? I wasn’t aware she was an author either.
This move ensures the naming of other buildings there will be overweighted with people from the non-conservative side of politics. I can just imagine “The Bob Brown Biodegradable Toilet Pavillion” etc.

I don’t (really don’t) want to make a political point here, but there are other less prominent women who might have been more appropriate – Nancy Burbidge, for instance.

Labor largesse extends to its corpses!

Why? I don’t see any relevance.

I’m upset they didn’t call it The Hoo-Ha Pavilion. Margaret famously went on TV in 1974 – when Gough was PM and Australia was caught up in the world oil-shock recession – and said that she “couldn’t understand all this hoo-ha about inflation” which at that stage was running at 20%.