Former prime minister John Howard has made a blistering attack on the decision to change the name of the Department of Health's headquarters from the "Sirius Building".
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"I hold in contempt this petulant, juvenile piece of anti-colonialism. It's just pointless petulance," Mr Howard told The Canberra Times.
The current Sirius Building was being built when Mr Howard was prime minister. It was completed in 2010 after he had left office.
Its architects had the specific intention of commemorating the arrival of the first fleets to start European settlement.
It was named after the First Fleet's flagship. The second building on the site, Scarborough House, was named after HMS Scarborough, a convict transport in the Second Fleet.
On top of the decision to rename the Sirius Building because public servants complained about the colonial association, it's emerged other colonial reminders have been removed.
The names of the ships in the First Fleet used to be engraved on the outside wall by the entrance, written in a large gothic scroll. The names (Alexander, Borrowdale, Charlotte, Fishburn, Friendship, Golden Grove, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales, Scarborough, Sirius and Supply) have since been removed.
The developers who leased the building to the federal department said simply they had been "deleted".
And a prominently displayed model of HMS Sirius has also gone.
In January, 2018, the model was removed just before Australia Day. At the time, the department vehemently denied the removal was because of the controversy surrounding what to some was Invasion Day.
The ship, a spokesperson said at the time, was going to the Department of Defence - but only for 12 months.
Six years (or 75 months, to be exact) later, the ship is still absent, and the loan to the defence department is now described as "long-term".
Asked to explain why, a department spokesperson said: "The department is creating a modern work environment, including refitting the Sirius building. The ground floor and surrounds are currently being significantly updated, with the signage updated, too."
He did say, however, there were no plans to change the name of the adjacent Scarborough House on the department's Woden "campus".
That may be because its lease expires next year and the department was planning not to renew it.
The Sirius Building, with is 10 floors and two underground car parks for 374 cars, was being revamped to take more people under the department's "New Ways of Working program" (or NWOW, in department-speak).
The department said a new name for the Sirius Building would be chosen "in coming months".
The whole of the department had been given the chance to vote but the ultimate decision would be made "by the department's executives". (This may be to avoid the silly names problem when a popular vote results in names including Boaty McBoatface and Ferry McFerryface.)
The architect of the Sirius Building said earlier in the week he was "disappointed" at the decision to rename his creation.
"We cannot deny our history," architect Peter Russell said.
He accepted some of the results of colonisation were "really appalling". He felt the Sirius was part of the first invasion but "we shouldn't deny our past".
In order to resonate with the Sirius, his architectural practice, May + Russell, put in many specific nautical features.
Throughout the building, there are relevant materials - often wood - and colours, often the blues and greys of the sky and long oceans between Australia and Portsmouth in England.
The current stunning building replaced the original Sirius Building constructed in 1968.
It was sited in Woden as the first substantial satellite suburb of Canberra. There are names throughout the area from ships in the First, Second and Third Fleets.
There is, for example, Surprize Place (there was a z in the name of the Second Fleet ship). HMS Surprize was owned by slave traders (perhaps all the more reason for a renaming of the place).
The wider suburb itself - Phillip - was named after Arthur Phillip, the first governor of the new colony.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
