Almost three years after it was agreed a major road in Canberra's north would be renamed, due to its namesake being accused of historic child sexual abuse offences, signs for the road remain in place — albeit covered by tape.
The decision was made after several men accused Sir William of abusing them while they were at Fairbridge Farm School in Molong, New South Wales in the 1950s.
Sir William died in 1970 and was never charged or convicted of sexual offences against children. His family has also rejected the allegations.
Still, one of the men who accused Sir William of sexual offences, Robert Stephens, led the campaign to rename the road, which connects the town centres of Belconnen and Gungahlin.
At the time, Mr Stephens said he had been affected by the abuse for decades after it allegedly took place, but said his pain was amplified when he moved to Canberra and had to regularly drive on the road bearing the former governor-general's name.
Signs finally taped over
In recent weeks, following enquiries by the ABC about why the road signs remained in place, the words William Slim Drive were taped over.
Roads ACT acknowledged the delay in replacing the signs and said the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic had been a contributing factor.
"Roads ACT acknowledges replacement signage on Gundaroo Drive has been delayed," a spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the ACT government planned to have permanent signs in place next month.
"Stickers were placed over the former name of the road on the existing signs," Roads ACT said in a statement.
"Temporary black and white plates with the correct name of Gundaroo Drive will be installed on the existing signs, while the procurement is finalised to permanently replace all 18 signs with standard ACT road signage."
Mr Stephens said he had been prepared that it would take some time to replace the signs, due to planned roadworks in the area.
"When we went through all of this, the government did explain to me that the name change would take place when the roadworks had finished," he said.
"So I was well aware that would have been probably two years down the track before that would happen."
But he said it was still a relief to have the signs temporarily taped over.
"It's fabulous," he said.
Primary school to phase out use of Slim
Sir William's name had also been adopted by one of Yarralumla Primary School's houses, in a tradition whereby former governors-general were honoured.
William Slim opened Yarralumla Primary School in 1957, and subsequently a sporting house – the yellow house – was named Slim.
But the ACT Education Directorate confirmed this month that it was in the process of renaming the houses after the accusations against Sir William came to light.
"We are aware that in more recent times, William Slim had allegations of paedophilia made against him prior to his death," a department spokesperson said.
"Following consultation with the school board, Yarralumla Primary School made the decision this school year to refer to each of the three houses by their colours only and to retire the names."
The spokesperson said that school staff were working with the student body to come up with new names for each house.
"The children are in the process of brainstorming what suggestions for house names they will take to the whole school to vote on," the spokesperson said.
"In the newsletter sent out just last week, Yarralumla Primary School also asked the wider school community for suggestions for house names."
