UNVEILING OF A PLA UE AT THE NEJ TELEPHONE EXCHANGE,
BATHURST,, J96.
Mr. Chairman, Your Worship the Mayor, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Iiuchetti
and all those other people who were referred to just now by
the Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys t
Now that is fairly comprehensive. I thincz I would
like to begin by telling you that my wife regrets her absence
just as much as you do, but we managed and shae's a -%, oman of
strong mind to force her into hospital about eight or nine
days ago, and to keep her there. It's been a very remarkable
achievement, and I trust ahe will be there for another few
days and that she will come out completely recovered. She
wanted to come, partly because she likes to come with me
strange as it may seem ( Laughter) partly because she likes
visiting places of this historic interest and importance and
partly and this I say with infinite regret because I should
dearly love to defeat him politically partly because she has
a soft spot for Tony Luchetti. ( Laughter)
Now this event is of double interest because it
occurs in this city. I myself was at school in a place called
Balla rat in the State o17 Victoria, an old gold mining city
which, when gold had gone, became a prosperous community because
it was set in the middle of a magnificently fertile district,
Now you didn't actually have gold mining here but I think that
the historical records would show that when the gol~ d came in
from outlying places, the citizenry of Bathurst and perhaps the
tavern-keepers in particular managed to let a little of the
gold rub off on their fingers so that you have an old association
with gold mining back in the fifties, and you, in turn, when
all that had gone, or most of it had gone, found yourself a
growing prosperous community because you had a lovely district,
a lovely and fertile district set about you, So I feel there
is something a little in common between an old Ballaratian and
you ladies and gentlemen of Bathurst,
It's a very interesting thing that this city has not
just been uontent to rest on its laurels, hasn't been content
Just to say, " Well, we are the third oldest city in the whole
Commonwealth of Australia. We were established in the year
of ' Taterloo. We are, ourselves, an historic monument as a
town." 1 You haven't been content to do that because the
growth is proceeding apace. I'm indebted to the Post office
for an interesting figure I didn't come here to quote
statistics, I can assure you but in the year in which that
very great Australian and memorable Prime Minister, J. B. Chifley,
became Prime Minister 194-5 there were 826 subscribers on
the .3-athurst ' ikcchange. Nov that seems only the other day.
It's a tribute to the strength of Ben Cbhifley's personality,
the genuineness o-f his friendship that one remembers him
always as if it were the day before yesterday, and it was
194+ 5, Today there are 2,635 subscribers. That means over
three times as many in that relatively short span of time.
Now that argues it is one of the index figures, so to speak,
that Bathurst continues to grow and that as it grows it will
increasingly add to its historic significance a very real
economic and civic significance as one of the great provincial
cities in our country. And on all these grounds one is e/ 2
2.
delighted to be here.
I noticed in one of the documents that you have
been producing for this great event that the first postal
deliveries were made here in 1828 and that the postal services
at that time were somewhat interrupted by bushr'angers led by
the redoutable Ben Hall who, unlike Ned Kelly, had not yet
become a popular hero. ( laughter) But bushrangers were
troublesome, and you remember that a great number of people
at that time, or some of them, in order to avoid or avert
their depredations, used to cut banknotes in half and send
half by post and half by other means so that they w-ouldn't
be worth anything until the tw~ o halves had been put together.
Well, the bushrangers went out of business shortly after more
modern communications were established and indeed, I think
that Gus Kelly would agree with me thal most of them have
now retreated to the fastnesses of Sydney and Melbourne,
( Laughter) There is one other thing I would like to say about
the significance of Bathurst because I really do believe that
this is a most significant place,. This is a commonplace to a
lot of you but it may not have been recalled by some. Five
of the great explorers in Australia made Bathurst their point
of departure on their great historic excursions into the
inland of Australia and down towards the south Evans, Oxley,
Cunningham, Mitchell and 3turt,
It is worthwhile recalling their names because there
were great and courageous men, literally going out into the
unknown and it does some honour to the Federal Parliament that
there should be a constituency today, an electorate of Evans,
one of Oxley, one of Cunningham, one of Mitchell and one of
Sturt. They heve been commemorated in perpetuity in the
Federal Parliament, the National Parliament of this country,
and their association with this city is wrorth recalling because
people like that represented the first real break-through
into the hinterland in Australia just as 4ent'iorth and
Blaxland who came over the mountains and came to here were
the first people to break through what seemed to be the
impassable barriers which confined the old original Sydney
settlement, . Jell, we know perfectly well that but for the work
of these people, but for t'aeir courage, but for their determination,
this land might not have been opened up for many, many
years and Australia would have remained a relatively poor
country a rather precarious colony perched on the coast.
All thai has changed. It is now a rich and well-balanced
country, growing steadily in strength and in significance.
And poised as you are here at the very beginning point of this
tremendous drive into the inland of Australia, you must
continue to be proud of your heritage and perhaps if I may
say so, equally determined as we all must be, to ? e pioneers
ourselves in the day in which we live, not to be afraid to
take a chance, not to be afraid to go out on to something
new because this is what our forefathers and your forefathers
did in their time and in this place.
Just one other thing I would like to say about
Bathurst because again in that respect that reminds me of
Ballarat. It is a city which has been endowed by those who
wont before with a sense of beauty. I think that the City
Square here is one of the most beautiful squares in Australia 9 e */ 3
3-
and I hope that it will always be kept so just as I recall
with pride and pleasure the work done by he pioneers of
Ballarat in gardens and in statuary, and in particular, every
time I have come through Bathurst, sometimes on reputable
missions, sometimes on political exercises ( Laughter), I
have paused long enough to look with admiration at that
lovely tower designed by that great architect and artist,
John Moore. That is, I think, one of the lovely buildings
in Australia because it has everything it has proportion,
it has colour, the right kind of colour, it has setting and
it exhibits th pride of a proud community.
Now I haven't seen the design of the building
that will go up here. I hope it won't be too hideous.
( Laughter) All I know already is that it will be reasonably
costly and that will give great pleasure to Tony Luchetti
who wanted something costly not something trifling but
whatever it turns out to be, it will be a matter o1 immnense
advantage to this community, and it is a very interesting
thing and gives me great pleasure to be able to recall some
time that it was erected, begun, initiated in this 150th
year of his historic place.
Now I think I will now relieve you from the burden
of listening to me by taking you into my confidence on one
point. I have never been too clear this morning as to what
I do, whether I unveil a foundation stone that is already
laid or whether I lay a foundation stone and tap it and say,
" I declare this well and truly laid." I usually take
precautions on this matter by finding out in advance what
I have to do and then do it, in case I forget to do it at the
end of the speech. ( Laughter) So whatever it is, I now
have great pleasure in do--! ng it.