We are honoured to share this speech by Henry A Price, son of Charles and Elizabeth Price, delivered at the special celebration to open the Undergraduate Courtyard and Charles & Elizabeth Price Gardens, honouring the unique contribution his father and mother made to the foundation of Burgmann College.
Hello everyone,
I have been asked to say a few words on behalf of the Price family—being the four of us siblings and our families who are the children and further descendants of Charles and Elizabeth.
We are delighted to see this vision brought so well to fruition as a wonderful new garden and social space for students and staff of Burgmann College and a special way to honour the unique contribution our father and mother made to the foundation of Burgmann College.
Charles was brought up in a university college, St Mark's in Adelaide, where his father Archie was the founding College Master. St Mark's is celebrating its centenary in March next year and we have with us today some of our Adelaide family who have come over specially for this opening.
In honour of Charles and Elizabeth both being Adelaide born and bred, we invited cousin Pauline to cut the opening ribbon today as our Price family representative. Thank you, Pauline.
After the war when Dad studied at the University of Oxford, he lived at Magdalen College (as had Archie, and also, Charles’ brother Kenneth) and experienced again collegiate life, now as a graduate and postgraduate student. He then brought a young family to ANU in Canberra in 1952, as a research fellow in the new Department of Demography.
In the ’60s, ANU had several halls of residence and the Catholic Colleges Ursula Hall and John XXIII College, but no college on campus with a residential tutorial system and ecumenical, pastoral outreach that Charles had experienced and valued so much.
Charles, strongly supported by Elizabeth, was among those whose vision was to establish such a college within ANU, and for seven or eight years, founding Burgmann College became his passion and all-consuming extracurricular project.
To achieve it, he and the founding committee had to mobilise and bring together all the various Protestant churches, he had to negotiate with ANU for a suitable site on campus, and he had to raise the funding. It is a great tribute to Charles, Elizabeth and all those who assisted how well this was achieved, as we see today around us.
As a family, we have many memories of Dad giving an update at dinner and riding along with Mum and Dad’s challenges and successes as they unfolded.
When Burgmann College opened in 1971, our sister Susanna became an inaugural resident.
Charles and Elizabeth Price celebrating their Diamond anniversary in the Grenfell-Price Room at Burgmann College (30 January 2005).
There are many people who have helped to bring this beautiful garden and social area to fruition and we as a family would particularly like to thank Greg Mills as Chair of the Council, who has throughout supported Burgmann College remembering Charles and Elizabeth, and Sally Renouf, who was Principal when this project started. Together with Greg, [she] suggested the Charles and Elizabeth Price Garden be extended from its spot on the graduate walkway, to be integrated as part of the new landscaping and social area. We were delighted with this suggestion and how it has worked out.
Related reading: Opening of the Undergraduate Courtyard and The Charles & Elizabeth Price Gardens
[Director of Advancement] Amelia Zaraftis has been our brilliant point of contact and coordinator from the outset, and together with Alex McKenzie, the new Principal, has brought it to completion. Tanya Socorro in Administration was very helpful with—and enjoyed, I think—selecting the stones to make this water feature exactly as we envisaged it. I am sorry she is not here today to receive our family thanks in person.
We thank all of you—Burgmann College staff, Council members, alumni, students and friends—who contributed and made it all possible.
I would also particularly like to thank Aunty Matilda House and Paul Girrawah House for their very special living Welcome to this Country. I know through family experience, academics at ANU have long recognised and respected the cultural significance of this land where Sullivans Creek meets the Molonglo River, now the lake, where we stand today.
We also thank you all, our family, friends and colleagues, for gathering with us here today, a number of you coming from interstate, to be part of this celebration.
Charles and Elizabeth loved gardens and nature and particularly native vegetation. They also loved having company around them, and this makes this garden a way of remembering them and their contribution to education here at ANU, through Burgmann College, very special.
I hope these gardens are greatly enjoyed for many years to come.
Photo 1 (L–R): Aunty Dr Matilda House-Williams, Ngambri-Kamberri, Walgalu, and Wiradyuri Custodian, delivers her address.
Photo 2 (L–R): Paul Girrawah House, Ngambri-Kamberri, Walgalu, and Wiradyuri Custodian, with his son Reuben House, Ngambri-Kamberri, Walgalu, and Wiradyuri Custodian.
Photo 3 (L–R): Close-up of the fountain and memorial plaque commemorating Charles and Elizabeth Price.
Photo 4 (L–R): Members of the Price family and other guests visit the new Charles & Elizabeth Price Gardens.
Photo 5: Group photo.
