It’s Greek to us

By Lilly O’Gorman
BERWICK residents have ramped up their campaign in a last ditch effort to stop a statue of a Greek Olympian from being placed in the High Street centre median.
At a packed community meeting on Wednesday 15 February at the Berwick RSL sub-branch, residents and community groups voted to lobby the council before its meeting last night (Tuesday) where the matter was expected to be raised as urgent business.
Members of the Berwick Chamber of Commerce were also planning to attend the council meeting to urge councillors to move the statue to Edwin Flack Reserve rather than the Memorial Park.
“People don’t want it there,” chamber president Harry Hutchison said at the meeting.
“There’s plenty of other areas it could go.”
President of the Residents, Ratepayers and Friends of Berwick Village Annette Aldersea said that, prior to the council approving the statue for High Street, the community had voiced its concerns at a meeting with council officers on Monday 24 October last year.
Despite this, the report that came back to the council stated the complete opposite, Ms Aldersea said.
“It is unfair and unjust that the council is putting the wishes of people outside of the council ahead of its own constituents,” she said.
“The only accurate part of the report was that we stated (the statue of) Edwin Flack must stay in High Street. That was non-negotiable.”
According to Ms Aldersea, the community believed High Street should only honour those with close ties to Berwick and Spiridon Louis’ only link to Berwick is that he competed in the same 1896 Olympic Marathon as Edwin Flack. Councillor Simon Curtis said he was yet to speak to one person in favour of the statue being placed in High Street.
“No matter who I speak to, everyone has an opinion on this and it is that is just doesn’t make any sense” Mr Curtis said.
“It’s an absolute no-brainer, the statue belongs at Edwin Flack Reserve.”
All in attendance voted unanimously that the statue should be placed at Edwin Flack Reserve instead of High Street, which should instead by preserved as a War Memorial and to honour only those with close ties to Berwick such as Flack who lived, worked and was buried in Berwick. Secretary of the Berwick RSL sub-branch George Nicholson said the location was totally inappropriate.
“We’d like to keep it as a commemorative area,” he said.
“(The Australian Hellenic Organisation in Support of the Olympic Spirit and Ideal Inc) can have their statue but just not there.”
World War II veteran Noel Hewitt agreed that the statue had no place beside the cenotaph in High Street.
“That area is a sacred site and that area should remain the same.”