A TESTAMENT to vision and imagination. This is how NSW Governor David Hurley described the city as he spoke at Griffith’s 100th birthday celebrations on Thursday.
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“Could you imagine what Oxley and Sturt would say today?” he asked the crowd gathered at the Griffith Regional Theatre.
The two explorers, who famously described the region as desolate, were imagined by the Governor in one of the city’s many vineyards enjoying prosciutto and fresh fruit and washing it down with locally grown wines.
“It’s a beautiful vibrant city,” he said. “The area has been a great example of the pioneering experience. To open up land and turn what was bleak into one of our major food growing areas is just wonderful.
“At government house in Sydney I have a policy that I only serve NSW wines to guests and you will be pleased to know last night we had an Education Week dinner and we drank wine from this area, so you reached out from here well beyond the bounds of the Riverina.”
The former chief of the defence force paid tribute to the returned servicemen from WWI, a workforce he said who were ready to do the hard work necessary to help the city arrive at a ‘future grand’.
“In 1966 the Governor Sir Roden Cutler came here for your 50th anniversary and I’m delighted Linda and I have been able to come here to your town and repeat that acknowledgement of what this city has achieved,” he said.
