Page 1160 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 2013
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Griffin axis. The celebrations did not stop there. Bands played at the Regatta Point stage well into the night, and those hugely popular bubbly bars kept the party atmosphere going.
That day Canberrans came to the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in droves. An estimated 150,000 or more gathered to celebrate the city’s 100th birthday. The event demonstrated the pride our community holds in our city, and those 100th birthday celebrations captured the excitement and energy of our young city on the eve of its second century.
I want to go to some of the other events that I have recently attended in the centenary year. This week is Seniors Week. Madam Acting Speaker, I know you were there at the breakfast for seniors at the beginning of the week. It was very well attended, I thought. We had a very interesting speaker from the CSIRO talking about crops and how modification to crops can help in human life and perhaps get us to a point where we will not need as much medicine provided by other means.
On Friday afternoon I went to York Park for a celebration of the planting of the oaks by the Duke of York in York Park right up near Parliament House. It was interesting to see the way those oaks have grown since 1927 compared to other trees planted in this city; it is quite a dry area there at York Park. We had a fantastic audio rendition of how the trees were planted in the first place—and of course there was the laying of the stone for Parliament House.
We have talked about the community contribution over the last 100 years. I want to reflect again on my visit to Morling Lodge on behalf of the Chief Minister—for those people celebrating the 100 years of the ACT, but also for their 50-year contribution and their recognition by receiving the Chief Minister’s gold award. It was wonderful to see the faces there at Morling Lodge when we congratulated them for the effort they have put into the community over their time in the ACT.
On Tuesday, 12 March, Canberra’s actual birthday, a special event recognising the unique origins of our great city was held at the foundation stone in front of Parliament House. At the location 100 years earlier stood a gathering of distinguished guests; the Governor-General and his wife, Lord and Lady Denman; the Prime Minister, the Hon Andrew Fisher; the Minister for Home Affairs, the legendary King O’Malley; and the Premier of New South Wales, the Hon James McGowan. In those days they stood on a dusty limestone plain of what was to be declared that day the new nation’s capital city, Canberra. We recalled those magnificent images of the 1913 ceremonies, with Mount Ainslie in the background—and no Lake Burley Griffin, of course.
Last week, the roles of these key historic figures of 1913 were represented by their contemporary counterparts. The Governor-General stated at the foundation stone ceremony:
The city of 2013 would surely meet and perhaps surpass the hopes and expectations of Lord Denman and all those present at its foundation ceremony 100 years ago … We delight in its magnificent landscape and natural beauty, its social and cultural vibrancy, its gravitas, the national institutions that have grown up here.
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