I14AUGURAT ION OF LAKE~ BURLEY GRIF FFRI N,
CANBERRA, A. C. T-. 17TH OCTOBER$ 1264+
Speech by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Sir RoberL Menzies
Sir At any rate, we have added a word to the vocabulary
of the country, because when I knew I had to do something about
this new Lake I wondered what it was open it, close it,
name it what was it to be? Inaugurate. ( Laughter) I think
thatts lovely. I declare this lake duly inaugurated. ( Applause)
While I am making that sweeping gesture I am happy
to say that I am delighted to be able to do it not only in the
presence of' those who have been named so far, but ini the
presence of my old friend, Sir John Butters, the first and
true founder of' this city. I am delighted that he is here.
( Applause) The creationl of this lake is the result of a pretty
long struggle. I remezmber being very much in favour of it in
the late thirties, but I was a humble, miserable out-voted
Attorney-General at that tima and tkiere were powerful forces
arrayed against me because there was a golf course ( Laughterl
and all the Heads of all the Departments belonged to it, and
they took a fine pride in making the then Prime Minister the
President of the Club ( Laughter) and I fougbt an uphill battle
for a long time. But after the war when I had an opportunity
in my own right, I began to come back to this project because
I have always believed, anid never more than today-that you
can't have a great city unless you have water in It.
You look around the world and wonder to yourselves
what London would be like without the Thames, or what Paris
would be like without the Seine. Indeed I have always thought
that part of' the dullness of Berlin if I may so speak was
due to the fact that it had nothing but a miserable trickle
of water running through it. Water, water in all the great
cities of the world, and I have looked forward to this momentor
to a recent moment when the lake was filled,
Now, I'm like the Minister who has made a speech in
which he has covered all the things that I really wanted to
say, but Itm like him, I don't mind a few blemishes on this
thing. I uttered imprecations about the mosquitoes, but they've
gone not because of my curses but because of the skill of
the Commission. W1e all uttered curses about certain faint
odours to which he has referred.
Now I find that it has become rather a hobby of
people to say " There was a big storm last week and a bit of the
wall fell in.' 4 May I offer a heresy? I don't mind if a bit
of the wall falls in. I would rather like to see a few more
patches around this lake in which the wall had fallen in and
in which the rushes had grown and in which the wild fowl
might have their nests because I see this lake ultimately not
as something purely artificial in its surr'ounding but as a
haunt of birds, as a haunt of wild life. Indeed, I am optimistic
enough to think the day will come when tourists coming through
will be able to feed the swans and this will be quite a feature
of the city. So I don't mind. Let the walls fall in as long
as they don't do it completely. ./ 2
-2
Well, now, the achievement of this lake has been
a long struggle, I wouldn't like to go into the details
of it, but at least twice during its history, having been
abroad, I found when I got back that evil men had been at
work and that something was being taken away from us and
I had to be the humble instrument of providence to restore
it. This is of the essence, this is the heart of the city,
and I hope it will be a heart that will be quietly beating,
not noisy, not uproarious a quietly beating, restful heart
for the rest of our lives.
Now, of course, it has been beautifully done. Do
let me say that to you if it needs to be said, because a
lake is more than a sheet of water. You can have a sheec
of water if you spend enough money on it anywhere I suppose
around about, even in the middle of Australia, but it is
what is around the sheet of water that helps to set the
beauty of the lake, and all the work that has been done on
the foreshores, in the surrounds of -this lake, all tlie
additions of beauty that have been made will, I think, put
us under permanent dcbt to those who have been responsible
for their design and their execution.
Now, Sir, there is just ono~ other thing that I wan-t*
to say. I think that ' this lake, as Mr. Anthony has said
is of tremendous significance to Canberra. It unites this
city. Some people thought it would divide the city on the
contrary it has united the city because it has given a centre
and a heart to the city, and that is a very good thing for
Canberra. But may I add that it is a very good thing for
Australia because what is good for Canberra, what makes
this capital city a more lovely and attractive city what
enables this city to have directed to it the attention of
millions of Australians is very good not only for Can) 3erra
but for Australia, because let us face up to it we have a
natural instinct, haventt we, in this country of~ ours for
parochislism, for thinking in terms of States and of Atate
loyalt ies. Now these are admirable things, but the nation is
the great element in Australia. It is a hard and constant
battle to make people understand that the Commonwealth is
not a foreign power, that the Commonwealth is something
that is interwoven through the whole structure of Australia
and through the hearts and lives of all its people. This,
though we understand it, is not easily taught, not easily
understood by people who havontt bothered to consider about
it. And here we are now, in a city which was a village
when I first came here, some time ago, and now it is a city
of 75,000 people. In due course it will be a city of half
a million or of a million people. Wlhen I first came here, one
almost had to apologise for having anything to do with
Canberra " That silly place" 1Earnest men, in club armchairs,
would debate with each other what ought to be done about
Canberra most of the suggestions being rather offensive and
some of them faintly obscene. ( Laughter) This doesn't happen
today, Every weekend, thousands of people come in. Wherever
I go in Australia now, instead of hearing somebody bleat about
aso eoe* / 3
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Canberra and the wicked expenditure of money in this place,
I have ten times as many people now saying to me, " What a
wonderful place Canberra is. My wife and I went up there
recently" or " We took the children up there last long
vacation. What a beautiful place it is,"
There is a pride in Canberra being developed
and thatts tremendously important, not for us because we
live in Canberra some of us temporarily this is not
just a matter of pride for us. This is a matter of national
importance, because more and more as people understand that
this is the capital of the nation, a capital of which they
may be proud, then more and more will they begin to realise
instinctively that the nation is more important than any
part of it and that the nation is symbolised by the capital
of the nation in this place. In other words thi-I think
is doing a great deal to create a genuine national spirit,
and therefore this lake is good for yoil and me good for
this city, good for Australia good foi, the spirit of the
nation, a spirit that will~ asi beyond any of the prejudices
of today, And so Sir, I am particularly delighted to loo1%
across here and Lo be able to see the two bridges thr-t we~ re
built as one might ray on dry land, because the last thing
I wani to do is to start a controversy bedause controversy
is hostile to my nature ( Laughter), but I venture to say
that those are two of the finest buildings we have in the
Federal. Capital, and I compliment those who were responsible
for them, And from now on here it is, a centre of~
recreation, a lake that will give completeness for example,
to all the scholastic facilities that exist ana will exi~ t
in this city, a lake that will complete the amenities of life
even for the acadumic staffs of the university, who will
be able to go out on the lake in future and forget all
about politics ( Laughter) and have a good time, Rea'lly
there is something here for all of us. All of us. Politicians,
as Doug Anthony has just said, will be able to look at the
lake with a new significance in future, all of us will be
the better for having this lovely centre in this lovely
city. And so, as I think I said at the beginning I
have a great feeling of official privilege, a great leeling
of unfeigned personal delight in declaring this lake to
have been inaugurated by me a quarter of an hour ago,