The $750,000 ''suite'' of five artworks on the Gungahlin Drive Extension, including the 17-metre-high steel structure Rhizome, was erected in 2007 under the eye of then territory and municipal services minister John Hargreaves.

Designed to ''enhance the driving/riding experience'', the GDE artworks have proved to be among the most incendiary in the ACT in the ongoing public art debate.

And Rhizome was still being mentioned in dispatches on Wednesday when former chief minister Jon Stanhope said he would not have commissioned the hot air balloon, the Skywhale, during the centenary year because of its controversial, divisive nature.

Many correspondents still blamed Mr Stanhope for Rhizome, despite Mr Hargreaves approving it. And they gave alternative names for it including A Blown Up Bus Shelter.

The Rhizome (at the Gungahlin Drive and Barton Highway interchange) was even disowned in 2008 by the government's public art panel. Architect Graham Humphries, a member of the panel, told The Canberra Times at the time: ''We did not select that. Had I been involved in the selection process, I don't think I would have supported it. For the cost and artistic quality, I think we could have done better.''

Decorated soundwalls and retaining walls and a pedestrian bridge extension were also included in the price tag for the GDE artworks.

While artsACT, advised by the panel, commissioned later artworks under the direction of Mr Stanhope, Territory and Municipal Services was responsible for the GDE works, which also included a roadside bogong moth installation that could only be viewed from an elevated position but was impossible to interpret from a passing vehicle.

Rhizome still exasperated one correspondent to canberratimes .com.au on Wednesday: ''Can we sell that ugly grey bundle of excess steel beams at the intersection of the GDE and Barton Highway for scrap, please? I'm sick of the ugly Stanhope art works detracting from the real beauty of Canberra - natural vegetation and wide vistas.''

Another person said: ''I like the Skywhale. It is real art you can watch moving around and not like that scrap metal sculpture at the Canberra Barton Highway/Gungahlin Dr Interchange,which should have been used by building that bridge before the collapse.''

Another comment was: ''I agree that Skywhale is a stupid concept and a huge waste of taxpayers' money. This being said, I have to say that I feel it is no more stupid or wasteful than the Stanhope 'Native Grasses' on Gungahlin Drive. Maybe it's 'the pot calling the kettle black'.''