After all the fuss about Princess Diana’s death has itself died,
it is now appropriate to consider what sort of lasting memorial we should
leave in her honour.
I have always felt that great people should have some type of lasting
tribute to ensure they are not forgotten by following generations.
Almost 35 years ago, as a senior officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs,
I was shocked to hear of the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
Without being immodest, I must say that at the time I was in the vanguard
of moves to have a permanent memorial erected to the slain US leader.
I immediately contacted the then Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, with
the suggestion that Kennedy be remembered by changing the name of Canberra
to “Camelot”.
I could tell by the long silence at the other end of the phone that my idea
had taken Menzies’ breath away – not an easy thing to do.
Some weeks later when I raised the issue with the PM he assured me Cabinet
had considered it fully but decided on some other form of tribute, the nature
of which eludes me at the moment.
As fate would have it, only a few years later I was again in the Vanguard
when I heard on the radio that Prime Minister, Harold Holt, had disappeared
off Portsea in Victoria.
He was shortly given up for dead, but I was determined that he would be
remembered.
This time I contacted the interim Prime Minister, Jack McEwen, with my idea
of changing the name of our then relatively new decimal currency.
Under my plan a “dollar” would become a “holt” and “cents”
would be “harolds”.
I explained to McEwen that eventually “harolds” would be known
as “harrys”, as in: “That’ll be 40 harrys for the pie”
.In my mind there was no finer tribute to our late PM than having his name
pass permanently into common useage.
McEwen – always a man of few words – was speechless. But, once
again, Cabinet decided differently, as is their right.
Princess Diana is altogether a different kettle of fish.
In his eulogy, her brother, Earl Spencer, mentioned her eating disorders
– a subject about which Diana herself was open enough to discuss publicly.
While listening to Earl Spencer it suddenly dawned on me. Here in Brisbane
we have the perfect opportunity to remember Diana in a most meaningful,
if not the most meaningful, way.
We should change the name of the southern, riverside suburb of “Bulimba”
to “Bulimia”.
It would provide a lasting memorial that not only triggers in people’s
minds thoughts about Diana, but also gives an idea to future generations
of the type of complex and fragile individual she was.
The idea is simple and elegant. It involves minimal change to signage, maps,
stationery and other bits and pieces.
It would be a thought-provoking move that would make other ideas such as
statues, fountains or parks pale by comparison.
It is certainly food for thought.
Rufus Badinage MBE, now retired, is one of Australia’s leading experts
on politics and public administration having worked as a senior bureaucrat for various state and federal governments.
