Talk:Walter Burley Griffin

The naming of the Canberra lake as "Lake Burley Griffin" is contentious. It suggests either that (a) he was known by his middle name Burley rather than his first name Walter, or (b) that his surname was Burley Griffin (with or without a hyphen). But neither of these was the case. His surname was simply Griffin, and in his lifetime he was generally referred to as simply Walter Griffin, or sometimes Walter B Griffin. Had his surname been 'Burley Griffin', his wife would have become Marion Mahoney Burley Griffin, but as it was simply Griffin, she is simply Marion Mahony Griffin.

I believe the reason Menzies chose "Burley Griffin" had something to do with a curious and hopelessly outmoded (even in the 1960s) English custom of referring to people and even addressing them directly, either by their surname alone, or by their middle name and surname. So, we often in old books see references to "Sebastian Bach" as if this were his full name and Johann had nothing to do with it. And there is the famous anecdote about Menzies writing to the then Chairman of the ABC Sir James Darling, opening with "My dear Darling".

I strongly suspect that the focus Canberrans now place on the name "Burley" when talking about Griffin is a legacy of the Anglocentric (and often anti-Australian) world view that Menzies had. It is high time this was changed. Lake Burley Griffin should now become "Lake Griffin". JackofOz 23:34, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)

new Walter Burley Griffin website

Hi Walter Burley Griffin fans,

I'm building a new Plone website dedicated to all things Walter Burley Griffin at http://wgbriffin.org, and would like to invite all Walter Burley Griffin fans to participate and contribute. The new website can be a great place for things outside of the scope of Wikipedia. So, before perhaps someday listing the site on the external links section of the Walter Burley Griffin page, I would like to first build it into a first-rate repository of Walter Burley Griffin info. Note that ZWiki software is installed, and any member can create their own wiki in their member area, or contribute to site-wide wikis (coming soon).

-- User:Sydhart