Missed opportunity to put her name on it

The “Put Her Name on It” campaign is lamenting a missed opportunity as Baw Baw Shire Council proposes to name two new parks in Warragul after men.

The proposed names for parks in the Waterford Rise development are Marrabel Park after Leslie Grant Marrabel and Hamilton Park after Henry Hamilton.

These are the last two parks in the estate to be named.

“Put Her Name on It” cofounder Kerrie Wilson said she believed no park or reserve was currently named after a woman in Baw Baw Shire.

In addition, only three per cent of street names recognise women.

“It’s significantly unequal and we want that to change,” said Ms Wilson.

“We’re confident that the men have merit. It’s the fact that it wasn’t even an option for a woman’s name to be considered.”

“It’s a real missed opportunity to have something named after women.”

Ms Wilson believed naming parks after women would carry added meaning with more scope to add both a first name and surname to the title. Street names tend to feature just a surname.

She is urging the community to make submissions on these proposed park names but more broadly Gippsland councils to be pro-active by making a list of notable women to be called upon when naming public places.

Ms Wilson is a founding member of Women in Gippsland which is behind the “Put Her Names on It” campaign. It aims to recognise notable women by equal representation in the names of public places across Gippsland, a project which may take decades to achieve.

She said the campaign was gathering momentum with state government buy-in. However, the only Bass Coast Council appears to be starting a list of women.

Baw Baw Shire reported the developers had opted to recognise previous landowners when submitting a list of possible names for the seven parks in Waterford Rise.

Those names were endorsed by council’s Place Names Advisory Committee.

Henry Hamilton took the ownership of land on the corner of Tarwin St and Princes Hwy in 1884. He was married to Julia Pharaoh and died in Warragul in 1916.

His son retained ownership of the land until 1928.

Leslie Grant Marrabel was born in Warragul in 1895 and his mother Julie Grant was part of a long-standing Drouin family.

Leslie was an icon of the cattle trading industry and he purchased an allotment in 1945 which was used for grazing. He built saleyards on the southern border along Princes Hwy which became known as Marrabel’s Saleyards.

The proposed park names are now up for community feedback with written submissions accepted until Thursday, August 20.

Feedback can be submitted to Place Names Committee, PO Box 204, Warragul 3820 or by emailing bawbaw@bawbawshire.vic.gov.au.