QOULBURN LILAC TIME FESTIVAL
CIVIC RECEPTION
GOLJLBURN, N. S. W. 4 OCTOBER 1968
Speech by the-Prime Minister, Mr. John Gorton
Mr. Mayor, the Mayoress, Members of Parliament and Distinguished
Guests:-The first thing I must do, Mr. Mayor, is to thank you for
being kind enough to extend to me this civic welcome and to give me the
opportunity to meet some of the leading citizens of Goulburn and its
surroundings. I must make clear though, Mr. Mayor, that this is by no'
means my first visit to this city, although it is my first visit as Prime
Minister. On more than one occasion in the past, I have been here and
have had a chance to tour the city and have had a chance to see it. One
occasion that stands out in my memory was when the State Member and
myself attended the opening and dedication of a science laboratory. at if
remember rightly St. Patrick's College. This also gave us an opportunity
to learn. something of the city of Goulburn. But this is the first visit as
Prime Minister, and it is therefore doubly important to me.
I should have liked to have been able to come earlier today.
In fact it was possible, but extremely difficult. After all, my wife and I
have just spent three days over in Western Australia, du~ ring which I think
we had one fifteen minute spell to ourselves. We arrived back at about
half past five last night in a state of almost utter exhaustion, and I really
did have to do some -work in the office today before I could come.
Nevertheless, I do apologise for having passed up the opportunity to come
earlier and to see Supertex and the other industries here.
It was a pleasure to me, for a variety of reasons, when
Dugald Munro asked me wouild I come to attend the Lilac Time festivities.
One of them, of course, is that it is so pleasantly named. Lilac Time
has got some aura of nostalgia about it for all of us or for most of us,
particularly those who were born about the same time as I was when we
remember Schubert and " Lilac Time" and the songs that came over and
we used to bash them out.
But also for another reason, because it seems to epitomise
a community spirit which is so utterly necessary in towns * such as Goulburn
or in towns such as the one in which I grew up. That was where, for a
while, I was Shire President -Kerang a smaller town, but nevertheless J/ 2
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one that needed this kind of community spirit. Because what is means is
that you began how long ago? fifteen years, sixteen years a long time
ago to work towards attaining something for the town and the citizens who
live in it. You began building that which you now have, the Festivities Hall,
which I haven't seen, but which, judging from the pictures of it, is a real
addition to this or any other community.
Rather than just say, ." Well, we hope someone will give us
the money for this" whether it be a state or whether it be a Commonwealth
Government you did something about it yourselves. You began to get
together as a community and to raise the funds and to build a hail, and you
have been doing it ever since, and.. I can't remember blt $ 70, 000:
or $ 80, 000 or something of that order has already been raised. Here is
this concrete result in this city of the effort that is being put into it. Really,
I think perhaps a manifestation of a community spirit of this kind means
more than the mere bricks and mortar which are seen in the form of a
building. It means,, I would have thought, great satisfaction to all those
who over the years have given something of themselves, something of their
time, in order to see that the community in which they live can be improved.
For these reasons, it appeared to me pleasant to be asked
to attend on this occasion.
I don't know, Sir, that I can comment very much on your
remarks about the development of Canberra and the development of Goulburn
because I haven't had the chance to study them, and therefore anything I
said would be just an immediate reaction.
But what I would hope would be that as the National Capital
develops, and develops as it will to a quarter of a million people before
very long, then it would be inevitable, whether some kind of light industries
were established in it or not, that all the region would benefit if it were only
as a market for what the region surrounding it could produce, if it were only
as a provider of opportunities for employment of young people at a centre
closer to the region than Sydney or Melbourne. I would think that kind of
development must have complementary development in the region around it.
Other than that, Sir, I can do nothing more than join in your
general approach that regional development is good. And when I say that,
I am not just talking because I do claim.. I don't know whether credit is
the right word.. I do claim some involvement with the decision which led
to the building of a teachers' college in this city of Goulburn. I was the
Minister at the time, and if you remember there was some question as to
whether it should go here, or whether it should go somewhere else, or
whether if it went here it would upset going to Canberra, or if Canberra
built one it would upset this one. But it didn't. There is one being built
here, and that will bring undoubtedly, not only those who will be attending
it as students and people who will be teaching the students, but the others
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who will be required to meet their needs to maintain their motor cars,
do their laundry and provide what they eat and all the other things
which follow when an accretion of population happens in any particular
district. So at least one small act has been done before these words
were spoken. I finish because I was told I must not talk too long, and I
probably have already. I finish by thanking you once again for the
opportunity of meeting the citizens of Goulburn. I finish by expressing
the hope that in Goulburn and in the centres like it throughout the length
and breadth of Australia, there will be a growth, there will be a fostering
of community pride, of community service.. and through that, pride
and service to the nation. This nation is being built as the centres are
being built, and the centres are being built to a large degree by community
effort by people such as you. And I thank you for that.
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