Paul Hester Walk

[Binxy]

Elwood city council are going to name a piece of parkland after Paul Hester.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I met Paul very briefly many years ago and he was a gentle, warm and funny human being.

Obviously he wrestled with mental illness and it's a battle only the victim truly understands, but part of me feels that he took the easy way out and owed his children more.

I guess the park will celebrate his life and maybe serve as a reminder of the isolation and torment of mental illness.

 

[Harvey Leadpipe]

Nice bloke sure, but to name a feature after a suicide is out there.

But what do we care, our national song is about a bushranger that kills himself by jumping in a lake after he steals a sheep!

Play on.

 

[Squeak]

Interesting decision, It's a bit like naming a pool after Harold Holt or a seatbelt company after Princess Di.

 

[ben.carbonaro]

Elwood city council are going to name a piece of parkland after Paul Hester.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I met Paul very briefly many years ago and he was a gentle, warm and funny human being.

Obviously he wrestled with mental illness and it's a battle only the victim truly understands, but part of me feels that he took the easy way out and owed his children more.

I guess the park will celebrate his life and maybe serve as a reminder of the isolation and torment of mental illness.

Good idea, but then we will people crying foul because he was in the 'entertainment' industry and wasn't a community figure so to speak.

 

[Leaping Lindner]

Good idea, but then we will people crying foul because he was in the 'entertainment' industry and wasn't a community figure so to speak.

Paul was an Elwood boy through and through and lived there all his life having grown up there. He was a very popular person and not just amongst people that knew him through Crowded House. There was a couple of objections when submissions where made to the Council for the naming but the vast majority supported the idea.
RIP Paul - Top Bloke

 

[Leaping Lindner]

Interesting decision, It's a bit like naming a pool after Harold Holt or a seatbelt company after Princess Di.

They've done that.

 

[Showbag]

I lived just near where Paul took his life and used to see him walking his dog through that park. I just think there is a whole stigma attached to suicide that is sometimes considered and it sometimes stops us honouring people such as Paul who have lived good lives and contributed to the community. I am glad that they are renaming part of the park after him, maybe it will help his children remember their dad.

 

[ben.carbonaro]

Paul was an Elwood boy through and through and lived there all his life having grown up there. He was a very popular person and not just amongst people that knew him through Crowded House. There was a couple of objections when submissions where made to the Council for the naming but the vast majority supported the idea.
RIP Paul - Top Bloke

Any idea what the objections were ?

Would make for some interesting reading.

 

[Squeak]

They've done that.

Indeed they have.