A group of Sacred Heart College students earned some laughs this week with novel research into the naming of residential streets.
The ABC gave widespread coverage of the schoolgirls’ study that tested adult attitudes to “silly” actual street names in Victoria such as Butt Street and Wanke Road.
Butt Street – snicker-snicker! Wanke Road – haw-haw!
Anyway, the point of the girls’ work was to find out how the names affected property prices.
According to the findings, residents of Beaver Street will be disappointed to learn they face losses of up to 20 per cent compared to nearby counterparts of streets with less Benny Hillesque names.
Ouch. Just imagine the hit on Grogan Court!
Still, it could be worse – North Geelong’s De Stefano Drive was, and still is, named after a former Geelong mayor who subsequently ended up in jail for stealing $8.6 million from clients of his accountancy company.
But there’s nothing funny about that!
Meanwhile, 23 Geelong governmental and welfare-sector bodies have signed a “Statement of Commitment” against family violence.
Everyone from Barwon Water to City Hall and Worksafe put pen to paper on Thursday morning, acknowledging that “family violence is unacceptable” and pledging resources to spreading the message.
Without downplaying the terrible scourge of family violence, the average punter might scratch their head wondering why anyone would need to condemn it with a Statement of Commitment.
To the rest of us it’s a given that family violence is “unacceptable”. Or were the 23 previously indifferent to the problem?
What about child labour, arson, sex assault? Have they signed commitments against those as well?
If our righteous 23 need to sign a Statement of Commitment to condemn evil then they’re going to need a lot more paper!
And don’t say you weren’t warned: Geelong’s Archibald Prize exhibition closes in just over a week.
The show’s been a hit with the art fans from around the region and beyond, putting Geelong right in the frame of culture vultures around Australia.
The exhibition winds up at Geelong Gallery on 10 December, with intending patrons urged to pre-purchase tickets online.
As the man in the hat would say, do yourself a favour!
