Thanks Janine.
Mr Bruce Harris, Ms Elizabeth Butcher, the choir from Canberra Girls’ Grammar; ladies and gentlemen…
I am pleased to be here at the Mint again to launch the Great Australian Artist Series.
This is a significant Series for our nation and for this year’s artist, Mr Rolf Harris. I am sure it is an honour to be asked by the Royal Australian Mint to design a coin, especially within an edition as prestigious as the Kangaroo Series.
The kangaroo first appeared in 1938 on the halfpenny and penny and that original design by George Kruger Gray carried through until 1964.
The decimal coins first minted here in 1965 did not feature a kangaroo design. Rather, Stuart Devlin designed coins around other unique Australian fauna: the possum; frill necked lizard; the echidna; the lyre bird; and the platypus. It was not until 1984 that a coin featuring five kangaroos designed also by Stuart Devlin became part of Australia’s decimal coins when the $1 coin replaced the $1 note.
In 1993 in tribute to the kangaroo that first graced our currency 55 years earlier, the Royal Australian Mint introduced its signature silver kangaroo series of collector coins. Images of past silver kangaroo coin designs are displayed around the room. Many of those coins were designed by the Mint’s own sculptors Horst Hahne, now retired, Wojciech Pietranik and Vladimir Gottwald. Over the years their designs have won many awards for the Royal Australian Mint.
Nonetheless, The Royal Australian Mint decided it was time to give other Australian artists the opportunity to try their hand at designing a silver kangaroo coin. Each year for the next three years the silver kangaroo coin series will contain images of kangaroos designed by three prominent Australian artists.
I would now like to unveil the 2007 Great Australian Artist Series coin design.
The coin depicts an iconic Australian scene of a kangaroo and her joey embracing under the shade of a gum tree.
Unfortunately Rolf Harris could not be here today, but he has recorded a special message for us.
I would now like to invite Bruce Harris, brother and manager of Rolf Harris to say a few words.