Ballina Council decided yesterday to support the Lennox Head Heritage Committee’s request for a plaque to commemorate the 2022 Lennox Centenary.
With the township being named in 1922, Lennox history stalwart Robyn Hargrave spoke to council in support of the idea for a plaque, to be placed within the recently saved Lennox Park shelter shed, as part of the reinvigoration of that controversial building.
She showed councillors an auction ad from 1922 relating to the original sale of blocks beside the beach, which were bought and then later resumed for the creation of the park area which exists today.
‘The initial beach pavilion was constructed by the early 1950s,’ said Ms Hargrave.
‘This site is the perfect location for a plaque commemorating marking one hundred years of Lennox Head, and particularly situated within the walls of the oldest public building still in existence.
‘Users of the facility tend to spend some time there, affording opportunity for good exposure to information about the village,’ she said.
Why Lennox?
Robyn Hargrave noted that the name Lennox Head originated from Captain Henry Rous naming the small hill north of the Richmond River entrance (and the river itself) after the Conservative English politician Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond, in 1828. A UK civil servant later arbitrarily moved the name further north to its current location.
Ms Hargrave suggested the historical plaque could be of a similar design to the all-weather plaque commemorating Brian Smith, at the start of the Lennox boardwalk.
Cr Kiri Dicker spoke in support of the idea, saying ‘It’s been really great this past year learning more about the settler history of Lennox Head and I really thank the Heritage Committee for all of their work; the celebrations were fantastic.
‘The other thing about the Heritage Committee is that they are genuinely interested in learning more about pre-colonial history of Lennox Head and they’ve demonstrated that commitment, so that’s something that I’m really grateful for.’
Cr Eoin Johnston said he would ‘probably’ vote for the plaque idea, but had some concerns about such a prominent landmark as Lennox Head being named after an obscure British postmaster-general in the Tory Government, and the vagueness around the naming of the associated village itself.
Cr Rod Bruem elaborated on this theme, noting that he would prefer there to be appropriate recognition of original place names, rather than ‘renaming of geographic features that had names going back thousands of years that we’ve just thrown in the waste bin’.
Nguthungulli
Cr Kiri Dicker then said she had no evidence that the local land council supported or opposed the Lennox plaque idea, but explained her understanding from talking to the Cook family and others was that the whole area from East Ballina up to around Broken Head was originally named Nguthungulli (not just Julian Rocks, as some people believe).
‘It means the beginning place and it has really deep significance to Aboriginal people,’ she said.
‘When we think about Aboriginal place naming, I think we need to not necessarily think about it with the same mental model that settlers used to name places,’ said Cr Dicker, ‘which is why it’s so complex, but I think that there are two histories that can be celebrated alongside each other, and that’s why I ultimately support this.’
The motion was passed unanimously.
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