Crace steers clear of boo boos, bogans, and bong bongs
Tuesday, 2 August, 2011
Planners at Crace working to establish the new suburb’s street names have found a range of weird and wonderful options to choose from.
... and the process has been a real eye opener,” says Crace Project Director Malcolm Leslie.
“Street names tell us about the history of a place, and selecting them is a serious business. We have to be very careful to choose recommendations that will stand the test of time and become embedded in the identity of Crace for many generations to come.”
So names such as Ghoolendaadi, Gidgingidginbung and Gobbagombalin are off the list for final consideration, while those including Dalton, Daley and Denmanare on.
Mr Leslie says that each suburb in Canberra has a theme by which its streets are named, which may include people, places, flora, fauna or major events in Australia’s history.
In Crace’s case, this theme is based on divisions and parishes and provides a snapshot of the extraordinary number and array of these territories, as well as an insight into the congregations and church properties that may once have been within them.
“As the nation’s capital it’s important that our streets reflect the Australian story and are linked to different aspects of our shared past, event when we’re forging ahead to build something new,” says Malcolm.
The process of naming new streets in Canberra is a detailed one. The ACT Place Names Committee first recommends names and themes to be used for roads across Canberra. The Crace team has been working with a document from the committee containing almost 5,000 division and parish names and has developed a list of potential street names.
From there, a list acceptable to the ACT Place Names Committee will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly and then published on the ACT Legislation Register. The final list will then be approved or rejected by the Planning Minister.
