Vic; ATSIC head wants Federation Square renamed

AAP General News (Australia)
12-12-2001
Vic; ATSIC head wants Federation Square renamed

MELBOURNE, Dec 12 AAP - The centenary of federation was a fizzer for ordinary Australians
and Melbourne's Federation Square project should be renamed, Aboriginal leader Geoff Clark
said today.

The ATSIC chairman's championing of a name change for the commemorative building project
being erected opposite Melbourne's Flinders Street railway station echoes state opposition
calls for a rethink.

Mr Clark said a more inclusive, forward-looking name for the project would be Treaty Place.

The state opposition favours the name Yarra Square.

Mr Clark said the 100 years of federation the project was intended to mark was meaningless
to indigenous Australians, who were excluded from events in 1901 and not recognised during
centenary celebrations this year.

"For many ordinary Australians the centenary of federation was a non-event," Mr Clark
said in a statement today.

"A new name for the square should not look back to a history full of shame and dispossession,
but rather look forward to a future in which indigenous and non-indigenous peoples reach
formal agreement on a way forward for the whole nation."

Debate on a name change has been spurred by the news that the opening of Federation
Square can no longer take place in the centenary year.

The square is the big ticket item in Victoria's commemoration of federation.

Originally expected to open this year and cost $128 million when announced in July
1997, it is now likely to open in the first half of next year at a cost of about $338
million.

Mr Clark said he had spoken to Premier Steve Bracks about his idea for renaming the
project Treaty Place and would press the issue further.

A spokeswoman for Premier Bracks said there were no plans to change the name from Federation
Square.

AAP ra/jlw/las/de l

KEYWORD: SQUARE

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