“It was said of Caesar Augustus that he found a Rome of brick and left it of marble. It will be said of Gough Whitlam that he found Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane unsewered, and left them fully flushed.”
From Laurie Oakes’ book Power Plays: The Real Stories of Australian Politics:
Happy 80th, Gough! Now, about your funeral
16 July 1996
Here’s a cheerful thought for Gough Whitlam as he celebrates his 80th birthday – a spectacular funeral is being planned for him. Not that anyone is in a rush, mind you. Fortunately, the great man is in such robust health that official approval of arrangements for a state funeral fit for such a legend will very likely not be required until well after Prime Minister Mark Latham, a former Whitlam staffer and protégé, moves into the Lodge. But it is best to be prepared. Something special will be called for – not at all the sort of thing that can be thrown together overnight. So an informal group of family and friends has been discussing the matter, on and off, for some years. The plans are stowed away in a file kept by the former prime minister’s eldest son, Nick. Big, wonderful, over-the-top plans, like the man himself; mostly serious, but with an element of tongue in cheek, as you’d expect.
Winston Churchill issued instructions for his own funeral. Whitlam is not that involved, even though the plans are of Churchillian proportions. In fact, apparently he goes uncharacteristically quiet when the matter of funeral arrangements is mentioned in his presence. But he has made one major contribution: his wishes on the music that should be played are part of Nick’s file.
* * * * * * *
So . . . the funeral plans. One of the pieces Whitlam has selected is Va, pensiero, the slaves’ chorus from Verdi’s opera Nabucco which gave expression to the Italian people’s aspirations for liberty and self-government. Va, pensiero became the theme song of Garibaldi’s followers during the Risorgimento – the uprising to unite Italy. The second piece he has nominated is more esoteric, but no less Whitlamesque – The March of the Consular Guard at Marengo, by an obscure French composer, celebrating one of Napoleon’s great victories. Whitlam was fascinated by Napoleon even as a child, but his sister, Freda, once told me that it was not so much the warlike side of Napoleon that appealed to young Gough as the French emperor’s civic achievements and the legal system he established.
Abraham Lincoln’s funeral is the loose model for what is being planned. The idea is that the main ceremony would be held in Sydney Town Hall, after which a catafalque bearing the coffin would proceed to the historic Mortuary Station, built in 1869 and heritage-listed. Lincoln became the first president to lie in state at the US Capitol rotunda before being carried home to Springfield, Illinois, by train, with stops along the way for people to pay their respects . . .
Not surprisingly, the funeral will be private. But I bet the memorial service on 5th November will go close to breaking records for attendance:
This evening, then, let’s charge our glasses and drink to the memory of one of Australia’s greatest-ever prime ministers. Let’s have music, dancing, merriment, and celebration of the light that has been, and the light that will come again as long as the men and women of Australia keep the faith.
(Image Credit: Australian War Memorial)
(Image Credit: Sydney Morning Herald)
(Image Credit: Bytes)
(Image Credit: News Limited (sorry))
(Image Credit: ABC)
(Image Credit: Courier Mail)
(Image Credit: SBS)
(Image Credit: ABC)
(Image Credit: Wentworth Courier)
THE PUB 
Another famous Gogh:
Any 3 please Mrs Richards.
I hope to be going to the memorial service at Syd Town Hall, even just to be in a crowd in the street, on Wed 5th.
Looking for my old It’s Time badges to wear.
Any other Pubkateers likely to go?
Good music tonight, I’ve been a Joan Baez fan for longer than I care to think about and The Whitlams are family favourites here. My darling daughter, No 1 son and I wacthed the 1998 ARIA awards just to see Gough and The Whitlams. Gough opened the envelope contaning the name of the winners and said ‘It’s my family! The Whitlams’.
Tim Freedman of The Whitlams talks about his friendship with Gough and Mrgaret here –
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/whitlams-frontman-tim-freedman-recalls-friendship-with-gough-whitlam-after-naming-band-after-former-pm/story-e6frfmq9-1227097598088
rnm1953 – 55, 62, 130
But Gippsland’s commuters shouldn’t worry because we’re being offered free travel. Something that didn’t happen the last 10 times that the line has been cut, I wonder why that is?
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victoria-votes/gippsland-train-disruption-blow-to-government-reelection-hopes/story-fnpvwbxp-1227101056841
rnm1953
If you see the abbott there, grab him and flush him down the nearest loo.
Hello Pubsters.
Mine is a red. Please.
The Whitlams in a Gough week can’t be too bad
It wouldn’t be because a certain minister is in trouble in his own seat?
My Mum will be driving through Canberra on the way to Queanbeyan races on Sunday, driving right past PH. I reminded her that if she saw Rabbott in the middle of the road that the law states she must not cause a traffic accident by trying to avoid a wild animal. :devil:
👿
🙂
If anyone wants live streaming of the cricket
http://www.cricket-365.tv/free-cricket-streaming.html
And, for Abbott: ➡
Even the ads there are better than Murdoch’s channel here.
Not goodbye, but hello!
gorgeousdunny1
I remember hearing on Triple J the recording of Gough presenting the 1998 ARIA Award foe Best Group to The Whitlams. Wish I could find a vid of it and his announcing the “award “to my family” . This was the song , it was also No.1 in Triple J’s Hottest 100 that year
Pour yourselves a drink or six and read this -after the raffle draw, of course.
John Pilger –
The forgotten coup – how America and Britain crushed the government of their ‘ally’, Australia
http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-forgotten-coup-how-america-and-britain-crushed-the-government-of-their-ally-australia
And the whole of Australia is soooo much bigger than the puny LNP.
‘Allo ‘Allo
Puffy,
Plus some refills . . .
pufftmd
Did you get a email from a pure company?
Brian Mc, a few of us from Jervis Bay are hatching a plan to be there .
And.
Only 14 for the cox plate tomorrow so not fair.
The next sweep will be the big one
Further to Fiona’s article. That Theodore Shackley looks like a right bastard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Shackley
I’ll be there in spirit!
Comments are back to 100 /page
Seems our GG has made a surprise to some of our ADF overseas. Whatever
The big one? Which Maiden Handicap?
I can’t see any comments at all at all.
Ah, that’s better!
The pitch is starting to look like Old Trafford in 1956.
BK would have a word or two to say.
I always thought that the L K S Mackinnon (whatever it’s called now) was a good event to bet on.
Bated breaths all round for 2000 hours AEDT?
For your next question: what is the difference between soliloquy and monologue?
Soliloquy: you are talking to yourself when you are alone.
Monologue: you are talking to yourself (or maybe even others) in the presence of others.
Monologue is a speech to an audience.
Soliloquay is an expression of inward thoughts spoken aloud.
Thanks for the numbers yet again ck.I’m in a spot where our wedding anniversary is on Nov 5 the same day as Gough’s memorial.
Dialogue and duologue?
It.s a busy night elsewhere
Draw in 8 mins, time for absent friends, bakson.
AsGrayAsGray – 85, 108, 168
Billie11 – 49, 95, 149
Ctar1 – 38, 94, 123
dedalus – 111, 119, 146
Heather – 89, 92, 136
gippsland laborite – 32, 56, 109
Kambah Mick – 50, 121, 175
kirsdarke – 44, 75, 140
Lord of the Fridge – 33, 131, 171
narns – 105, 127, 157
paddy2 – 8, 134, 153
Roy Orbison – 45, 63, 151
and not forgetting –
Fiona – 22, 73, 100
Thank you, Mr Watt.
Draw coming up –
127
Congratulations to –
narns (absent friend, may not even know he is in the draw)
CK,
I hope you find this as smooth as your running of the raffle:
BK would have a word or two to say.
_______________________________
He does! It’s a travesty,
Joe6pack
i cannot see anything along those lines.
Congratulations Narn,
Where are you mate?
Fiona
Ta muchly, very smoooooth goes down a treat.