The editor of The Age, Creighton Burns, was unexcited by the prospect but nevertheless sent a junior reporter, Rosslyn Beeby, to cover the saga. She, along with other journalists, was subject to repeated cold and wet crossings of Macquarie Harbour from their base in Strahan, and then on 20-kilometre trips up the Gordon River to witness the hundreds of people who were arrested trying to block the bulldozers invading the World Heritage wilderness.

Beeby's reportage was incisive, descriptive and powerful. I count it as a crucial ingredient in the successful motivation of Australians, in particular Victorians, to vote for the change of government in March 1983.

The incoming prime minister, Bob Hawke, announced that "the dam will not be built". And so the Franklin, now rated as one of the world's top 10 whitewater rafting rivers, was saved. Rosslyn Beeby went on to a distinguished career in journalism, including more than a decade as the environmental journalist for The Canberra Times. She died in Queanbeyan this Easter.

Saving the Franklin and lower Gordon rivers and their ancient Aboriginal heritage, rainforests, caves and wildlife was an outcome involving the dedication of thousands of people. But in terms of drawing the extraordinary peril of the river to Australians' attention in that summer of 1982-83, I reserve an honoured place for Rosslyn Beeby.

It's irritating to hear the media continually referring to Prince Philip's "gaffes". The truth of the matter is that he had a sense of humour and a disdain for political correctness.

When I was writing DFAT cables from overseas I often tried to inject humour into what I wrote to make the cables enjoyable to read, but it was invariably removed to make them boringly bureaucratic.

I can therefore well understand his frustration - particularly with the confected overreaction to some of his informal comments, usually made to put an audience at ease. I don't recall any of his public comments being made in a way that was intended to be deliberately hurtful or malicious.

That must be something of a record for a prominent figure, given his 70-plus years of public service. It's a pity there aren't more like him in positions of influence.

In 2015 Tony Abbott ended his time as PM by announcing Prince Philip would receive a knighthood within the Order of Australia.

This well-intentioned and entirely reasonable action was followed by a media outcry. The Turnbull government declared the Order of Australia would no longer award knighthoods.

Prince Philip perhaps never fully recovered from laughing at our antipodean shenanigans.

The Australian Monarchist League, ACT and District Branch, mourns the passing of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.

Throughout the Queen's reign the Duke of Edinburgh has been the Queen's major support. We give thanks for the Duke's decades of faithful service to the Crown and Australia.

Canberrans have had a particularly close connection with HRH, with the national capital hosting the Queen and the Duke during many royal tours, most recently in 2011 when thousands of Canberrans turned out at every opportunity to greet our Queen and her consort. We encourage all Canberrans to reflect over the coming days on the Duke's example and to emulate him in putting Crown, Commonwealth and family first.

With lifelong connections to Greece and one of its beautiful daughters, it is with a tinge of sadness that I reflect that Queen Elizabeth has never visited Greece.

It is thought the main reason may be the fraught history of the monarchy in Greece, which affected Prince Philip's immediate family, and saw their flight in 1922.

But to be clear, it is not completely true that the Queen has never been to Greece; she did go there at the invitation of King Paul, Prince Philip's cousin, in 1950, but that was before she became Queen.

Prince Philip was a marvellous human being who, as husband, father, grandfather gave an example of life-service which some young royal couples could do well to note.

I refer to the article by Bev Cains, "Territory euthanasia is no human right" (Saturday, April 10). I know that, as a territory rather than a state, the ACT doesn't have the power to legislate on matters like euthanasia.

This can, and should, be changed by the Commonwealth. Unfortunately there are many in the community who die a painful, uncomfortable death due to a terminal illness.

Ms Cains believes that we should focus on "offering the very best of end of life care" to such people, and I agree on that. However it doesn't matter how good the care is for some terminal illnesses the end of life can still be a painful, undignified process.

I lost my mother to an aggressive form of MND last year. She fought "the beast" as best she could.

She had excellent care in NSW, from palliative care and her family, but her battle with MND was excruciatingly distressing for her.

Should the same fate befall me, as a resident in the ACT, I would like to have the choice regarding my end of life options.

It seems Prime Minister Scott Morrison is taking a leaf out of Donald Trump's book. He's now making important announcements via his Facebook account.

Does this mean he considers that the only people with whom he needs to communicate are his Facebook friends? Does he dismiss the rest of the Australian population as not worthy of hearing these announcements?

Twice now he has made announcements via Facebook: first his apology for targeting a journalist during a press conference, and secondly, last weekend his announcement that there will be no designated timeline for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination.

It's clearly much easier to make announcements via Facebook than face a group of journalists at a press conference.

You are right to conclude the COVID-19 vaccine rollout may be a bumpy ride, but is not a "calamity" ("Vaccine hurdle a hiccup, not a calamity", April 10, p28). My vaccination experience was "bumpy".

I recently booked for a vaccination at the COVID-19 Surge Centre in Garran, where I was told that the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines were being allocated on a 50-50 basis. I told staff that because I was committed to a trip to western Europe, where the coronavirus is rampant, I would much prefer the Pfizer vaccine. I cited the advice from a doctor in a national newspaper. To paraphrase: The AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine is worse than some others by metrics including effectiveness, safety, side effects and length of time from first dose to maximum protection.

That advice was ignored, and surge centre staff were adamant that it was the AZ vaccine or nothing: to my mind, hardly best practice.

"Service", "sacred", sacrifice": Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson deploys the time-worn vocabulary of emotional blackmail in his defence of the indefensible destruction of Anzac Hall ("It's the most important job I'll ever do" and other stories, The Canberra Times, April 10).

Yet nowhere does he resolve, or apparently even recognise, the obvious confusion between the AWM as a place of remembrance and an institution that functions as a war museum, somewhere that the history of Australia's involvement in conflict can be explained and objects put on show.

As others have written, the museum can be better located in an expanded building at Mitchell, or even in something purpose-built elsewhere.

Nonetheless, many Canberra people, wise to the ways of politicians, will realise that the planned expansion is a fait accompli, because it is seen as a cheap way of acquiring the veterans' vote.

Not cheap for the afflicted taxpayer, of course.

Thank heavens for Ian Pilsner (Letters, April 9). And here I was thinking that I was the only Coalition supporter in Canberra allowing myself to be revved up by your left-wing publication.

At this very sad time may the Queen be comforted by the warm embrace of the international community's good wishes for her and the royal family.

Julia Gillard was correct to say Prince Philip had a sense of fun. I was outside the church on their last visit when overawed kiddies were giving posies to the Queen. Then two rude cockatoos flew overhead screeching loudly. The wildlife-loving duke grinned and said (Aussie style) "noisy buggers". We'll miss him, republicans and all.

Prince who?

After reading about the Duke of Edinburgh's impressive list of achievements, I feel the 41-gun salute to mark his death was insufficient. It should have been 99.

Recent news events have led me to discover the newest, most cringeworthy job title ever. I'm not sure what qualifications are required to become a "royalty expert", but I'm sure I don't want to become one.

Instead of volunteering statements about how his father was the grandfather of the nation and how stoical his mother is, Prince Andrew could speak to American investigators about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein's activities. His selective loquacity raises the spectre of his rehabilitation via bereavement.

I presume that the ABC, in their haste to mock up a masthead for one of their news programs, meant the "interment of Prince Philip", not "the internment". Come on Aunty, you can do better than this.

The headline read "A man in a role with no precedent" (April 11, p6) and referred to the late Prince Philip in his role as Prince Consort. There is a precedent. Prince Albert, the Prince Consort to Queen Victoria.

Can we please reduce the ongoing media reporting about AstraZeneca, or at least get some balance? It's not a significant problem despite the hysteria being stoked by the continuing, and now boring, repeated media reports. The success of the vaccine overseas speaks for itself. Let's hear more about that.

So what will hit the political fan this coming week? More of the same or a completely new can of worms? Whatever it is, rest assured the federal government will avoid blame, deny any knowledge, and probably fail to have any idea of how to solve the problems.

How will Albo comment on the extra 20 million Pfizer vaccine doses to arrive before the end of the year? Perhaps "bugger"?

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