The Canberra Times (Doug Dingwall) has an article today on opposition to the Australian War Memorial’s plans to take land in the Remembrance Nature Park for builders’ sheds and later permanent car parking. Richard Thwaites, son of Honor and Michael Thwaites, moving spirits behind the creation of the park 40 years ago, is quoted at length.
It [the park] is the counterbalance to all the trauma and tragedy that is represented by war, that is properly represented in the War Memorial. Out the front you can see the human environment, represented by Parliament House, but out the back you have the natural environment that is permanent and that will always be there …
The worrying thing with this development is it’s amplifying a trend which has happened in recent times, which is since self-government, the ACT government sees the memorial as a tourism site, and where possible a construction site, because without tourism and construction the ACT government doesn’t know where to turn.
On cue, an ACT government spokesperson said, ‘The ACT government supports our national institutions, including the Australian War Memorial, as they are an important part of our tourism attraction’. An earlier related post. And another.
In other news, War Memorial Council member and author, Les Carlyon AC, has died aged 76.
6 March 2019
