Backflip saves Whitlam home

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Winding back history to revisit the 1972 ALP election theme song that helped bring Gough Whitlam to power after 23 years of coalition government. By Rocco Fazzari and Denis Carnahan.

Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy has stopped the destruction of Gough Whitlam's birthplace in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, despite on Wednesday claiming he could not intervene because a demolition order had already been granted by the local council.

Mr Guy on Thursday said he had applied for an interim protection order on the former prime minister's family home in Kew.

"Yesterday I applied for an Interim Protection Order, under the Heritage Act, for the birthplace of Gough Whitlam," Mr Guy said."I am advised that the Heritage Council has today made an Interim Protection Order."

Demolition has begun at Ngara, the Kew childhood home of Gough Whitlam.

Mr Guy said Mr Whitlam was "widely acknowledged to be one of the most significant Australian political leaders of the 20th century".

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"As his birthplace, it is likely that the cultural significance of this house will become recognised more strongly as time passes," he said.

The interim protection order would be issued while the nomination of the house to the Heritage Register proceeded, Mr Guy said, to allow "for a fresh consideration of its cultural significance given Prime Minister Whitlam's recent passing".

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Backflip saves Whitlam home