Have you ever wandered down the ACT Honour Walk?
You've probably walked over it, without even noticing it.
The honour walk is located in Ainslie Place, between The Canberra Times Fountain and London Circuit, the walkway now scattered with autumn leaves. At night, the area is lit up by sparkly fairy lights in the trees, as people walk between the theatre and shopping precincts.
Then-chief minister Jon Stanhope dedicated the honour walk in 2005 as a way to recognise individuals who, and groups that, have made an outstanding contribution to the ACT.
Brass plaques with their name and achievements are embedded in the walkway, just right for a peruse on a lunchtime or otherwise quiet moment in the city.
The honour walk now boasts more than 80 recipients including Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin, the Canberra Philharmonic Society, soup kitchen lady Stasia Dabrowski and the Brumbies.
Six more worthy recipients were last week added to the walkway, four of them posthumously. They were:
- Senior public servant, diplomat and Canberra Raiders chair Dr Allan Hawke who passed away last year.
- Sue Salthouse, an advocate for people with disabilities, women and domestic violence victims, who died in 2020.
- Olive Brown, an advocate for health services to support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Olive, who died in 1993, was instrumental in the formation of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Services.
- Questacon founder and physicist Professor Mike Gore, who passed away last year, was also honoured with a place on the walk.
The most recent recipients also included an organisation, Companion House, which helps people who have sought safety in Australia from persecution, torture and war related trauma. Companion House provides primary healthcare and counselling services.
Also on the walkway now is Peter Cursley, who established the Newborn Intensive Care Foundation in 1995 and has since raised more than $6 million to support neonatal care in the ACT and region. The foundation has provided funding for nursing staff, education and research, along with lifesaving medical equipment.
Mr Cursley established the foundation in the wake of the death of his newborn daughter Hanna in 1993. His then-wife, Susan, died two years later after battling a brain tumour.
Mr Cursley, also well known in the national capital as a former marketing manager of the Canberra Casino, has retired to Sale in Victoria but still works hard on the foundation. He returned to Canberra for the honour walk ceremony. "You don't do it for the recognition," he said. "It's nice to be recognised for what we've been able to do over the last 30 years."
Mr Cursley is still motivated every day to work for the foundation, making sure to put in a plug for its latest fundraiser, Bake for Babies, which runs from June 1 to August 31. (Register at www.newborn.org.au)
He keeps working because more babies need to be saved. "Look, knowing that there are lots of kids, and even adults, running around perfectly healthy, whereas without the equipment they would be brain-damaged or have lung damage or have cerebral palsy or be blind, that's the greatest achievement," he said.
Take some time to read all their stories on the honour walk. It's worth it.
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