Brisbane came from near mayor's home town

The substantial and lasting contribution made by Governor Brisbane in his four short years as Governor of the fledgling colony of NSW from 1821-25 might not be well known locally.

He came to us from Largs, in Ayrshire, rather near Kilmarnock, home of Mayor McKinna.

The remarkable depth and breadth of Brisbane's lasting legacy is summarised by Frederick Watson in the Introduction to Series one, Volume 11, of Historical Records of Australia, published by the Parliament of Australia.

Surely Gosford's citizens should be proud to live around a waterway which was named to honour such an outstanding administrator.

Moreover, one wonders why the opposition to the name Brisbane Water seems to be based on a presumption that only one place can be named for Governor Brisbane, a man of such distinction and contribution to this country.

The mayor has suggested that otherwise we simple folk become confused and that we most certainly need to change the name to attract developers and financiers to The Landing.

Perhaps changing the name of Gosford itself will be next in the quest to achieve such idiosyncratic distinction.

I wonder what the broader Australian community must think of our Council's current petty and unworthy preoccupation.

What does it say of our values?

What should being Australian and Australia Day mean to us, if we are so readily prepared to ditch our heritage and our obligations as a community to acknowledge such indebtedness as this?

Email, 24 Jan 2013

Kay Williams, Pearl Beach