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PRIME MINISTER1
SPEECH BY THE PRIE MIPiSTER, THE HON P4J. KEATING MP
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE HONOURSv SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER 1993
It is a very great pleasure for me to be here this evening to honour such a distinguished
group of Australian artists, who have given so much to their fellow Australians and the
world at large.
But I know you will excuse mc if 1 don't speak at length tonight about the recipients or
the awards.
Their records are a much more eloquent testament than I could hope to provide.
Having said that, however, theme is one performer here tonight that I do wish to pay
special tribute to.
Walter Burley Griffin, perhaps the greatest architect in Australa's history, oncc very
truly said that " buildings are the most subtle, accurate and enduring records of life."
Tonight I want to pay tribute to such a budlding to the Sydncy Opera House itself,
one of the best architectural decisions that we ever made in Australia.
It was said somewhere that:
".. Whenever anybody begins to look at things in a way that is slightly novel,
999 peoplc out of a 1000 are totally incapable of seeing what is put before
themn. It taikes at least 40 years before they can manage to make it out."
There's truth in the observation, but in the case of the Opera House it is only a half
truth. It's certainly true that when the Opera House was under considcration and in the
process of being built, many Australians just didn't know what to make of it. There
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were no other buildings like it in Australia, and you never saw anything like it on your
overseas tour to Covent Garden, or Paris or Milan or wherever.
So wc got the snide comments about the Danish Blue Danish Bluc, of course, was
then a peak of cultural sophistication.
The doubters and the slaves to cultural conformity were out in force, and it took a
major effort to ensure that what now seems thc only WsibIe design for the site, should
prevail. It did not take 40 years for the people of Sydney and Australia to call the Opera House
their own. In a very short time they were delighting in it, and world wide, with Ayers
Rock it was recognised as one of the two great symbols of Australia.
The extraordinary symbolic importance of this building was brought home to me in
Ireland a few days ago, when a man told me how he had gone to Australia recently and
when he stood in front of the Opera House, he said, he couldn't believe he was actually
there. What he described was the way Australians used to feel standing in front of Big Ben or
the Tower of London.
In Monte Carlo it was quite apparent that everyone related their concept of Australia
to these two images, the Opera House and Uluru, and I do not think it is drawing too
long a bow to suggest that they deserve some of the credit for getting us the Games.
John Douglas Pringle, I think, captured the essence of what we feel about the Opera
House when he wrote that:
" There it stands a perfect symbol liniking the city to the sea, welcoming
incoming ships with its wide open arches, shining brilliantly in the summer sun
or gleaming palely by moonlight, contemporary in feeling yet reminding us of
other ages when great buildings were built to the glory of God or the splendour
of princes and not simply for utilitarian purposes it is a building of which all
Australians may rightly be prud...".
It is also significant, I think, that one of the recipients of an award here tonight, Dame
Joan Sutherland, was a important member of our winning team in Monte Carlo.
Dame Joan, like other award winners, has been a trail-blazer for Australia for many
years. She, and Richard Bonynge, Don Burrows, Ruth Cracknell, Sir Charles Mackerras,
Gracme Murphy and Janet Vernon and Garth Welch and Marilyn Jones have done it
hard for Australia.
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I know that they would all prote~ st that they loved what they were doing, and wouldn't
have swapped it for quids. And I'm sure that's truc.
But tlhat doesn't mean that the rest of us should fail to recognise and acknowledge just
what a debt we owc them.
Not just our young performers who have had opened for them doors which these
peoplc had to prise open for themselves.
But evcryone who has found life a bit easier because of what thcy have done to
establish Australia in the eyes of thc world as a rich and creative culture.
These people dcserve our profound thanks.
They have given us enormous pleasure.
Thcy enrich our. lives.
Their art inspires us to try a little bit harder anid to live a little hit better, and I feel
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