ECU City is home to the Furley Hawkins Bentside Spinet.
A piano made in 1736.
290 years old.
Built in England 90 years before The Amity arrived in Albany.
The person who made it could never have imagined that it would last ten generations.
Nor go as far as a country called Australia.
Just as that piano went far - that is now ECU’s mission.
To Go Further.
Australian Government support
Because the massive challenges of this decade and the ones to follow need deep thinking.
Artificial Intelligence, ageing population, authoritarianism.
And that’s just some of the challenges starting with the letter A.
Never has an educated population of doers been more needed.
That is why I have been proud to champion this project.
See it rise out of the ground.
And meet the 10,000 students and staff bringing it to life every week.
On raw numbers, this project will return $7.5 billion to the Australian economy.
But that’s the baseline of ambition.
And the impact will go even further.
Delivering and educational legacy
Innovation does not mean forgetting our past.
The Whadjuk Noongar people are not just the traditional owners of this land.
They are in the built environment here at ECU.
The Karak Walk.
Here in artist Lea Taylor’s etchings into the pavement outside the city campus entrance on Yagan Square.
And Reko Rennie’s white tailed cockatoo feather sculptures.
A university in the mould of Edith Cowan
It is just one of the ways this is a campus where all are welcomed, and all are respected.
Echoing the vision of its namesake, Edith Cowan.
We know that there is only one Australian university named after a woman.
You may not know, this is also one of only five Australian universities named after people who themselves who did not go to university.
But only Edith Cowan was denied even the opportunity to apply for higher education.
Edith Cowan herself said in Parliament:
‘I think perhaps we all feel it is a pity we were not able to attend a university, that had it been free in our day it would have made a great difference to our culture generally, and perhaps to the whole community.’
On another debate about supporting children through early childhood and into schooling, she declared:
‘No one believes in education more than I do.’
Conclusion
Today’s official opening delivers on Edith Cowan’s dream.
It places a public education institution – which delivers a consistently high standard of education – in the heart of our city.
It says something about Perth that we have this iconic building in the heart of the city.
A place full of monuments to resource companies and the wealth that has flowed to our state.
This campus is a monument to something else.
A monument to knowledge and a monument to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
A campus that tells all who come to Perth – you are welcome.
This campus says knowledge and learning are for everyone.
And it places that declaration in the heart of our state capital.
Because the campus opening, this year, is just the start.
Next year we go further.