Page 3773 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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by being made Canberran of the Year. In that year, however, he did, as the Chief Minister indicated, go to Queanbeyan. The reason that he gave was that he was a bit fed up with too much planning and red tape in Canberra. Thankfully for us, he moved back to Canberra, where he has been ever since.
To the Viennese, homes are only to sleep in, and the coffee house is a person's home away from home. That was truly Gus's philosophy, and that is what he put into practice in real life. Apart from being one of the first persons to give Canberra a soul and to pioneer an outdoor style of living, which we simply had not seen in Canberra, Gus was a great community-minded person. He gave a lot of money to the young, especially. From his various cafes in Garema Place he gave food to destitute youth. He provided employment to young people, and perhaps overemployment at times.
Gus was of great assistance to me on a number of occasions. I can recall having many discussions with him. I recall Gus and a number of other shopkeepers from Garema Place coming to see me and my party in 1989, when we first put up the move-on powers legislation. Gus continued to serve his community and continued to have fights with the bureaucracy and other people until his death. I was involved with Gus, as was the firm of solicitors I was with, in his recent fight, which was settled just shortly before his death. Gus was a battler to the end and, as the Chief Minister said, a very great Canberra institution. He did so much to enhance the quality of life in Canberra and was truly a pioneer in terms of giving Canberra a soul. The Opposition joins with the Government in condolences to Gus's widow, his family and his very many friends who are saddened by his death.
MR MOORE: On behalf of Ms Szuty and on my own behalf, I would like to add our support to this motion. In doing so, I take care not to repeat many of the things that have been said, although it is important that I point out that we concur with the sentiments expressed.
After Gus passed away, there were a number of phone calls to my office. In one of them somebody suggested that we should put up a plaque or a monument to Gus Petersilka. I gave this some thought and decided that he probably has a better monument than most people do, because every time you walk through Civic or drive around some of the district centres in Canberra you can see cafes and restaurants with outside areas. That is, of course, what Gus was on about; he was on about ensuring that Canberra had a certain style of life that could be appreciated by all. He would recognise that. In many ways, that is a monument to Gus Petersilka. In addition, there was his recognition as Canberran of the Year. That achievement was well received.
When I think of Gus, I think of going over to his most recent restaurant, and the ones before that, and sitting down to have a cup of coffee. Gus would never let you get away with that. I am sure that most members have experienced this. No sooner had you walked in - you might be just walking past - than Gus would say, "Oh, just come and sit down here"; he would bring out a cup of coffee and say, "I just had a point that I wanted to raise with you", about either something that you had said or something that you ought to have said. He certainly reiterated that in his advertisements in the paper, as Mr Stevenson pointed out.
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