Cockington Green Garden Project

21 Jul, 2018 by Bushra Khanum

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Dear respected community members

I’m thrilled and excited to update you on the progress of our recent project at Cockington Green.

Opened to the public in 1979, Cockington Green (www.cockingtongreen.com.au) is one of Canberra’s landmark attractions which can’t be found anywhere else – delightful and fascinating display of meticulously crafted miniature buildings set within beautifully landscaped gardens, miniature steam train rides, rose room etc. The park is constantly growing with the popular addition of the International display area where 31 countries are being displayed with their national iconic places of interest including Triumphal Arch Palmyra (Tudmur) – Syria, Leander’s Tower (KIZ KULESI) – Turkey, Tenochtitlan Aztec Temple – Mexico, Lahore Gate – The Red Fort – Delhi etc.

Australia is renowned for it’s multiculturalism and Canberra is the hub of it. Each year Canberra organizes National Multicultural festival to celebrate and showcase the different groups of people living in Australia and our charity Let’s work for Bangladesh (LWFB) has been participating in this festival since 2009 to portray the culture and cuisine of Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi community living in Canberra and it’s surroundings are around 10,000 and the numbers are increasing each year due to migration and study. As the name of our charity suggests to work for Bangladesh in any shape or form, we have been thinking about building an iconic Bangladesh miniature structure at Cockington Green for the last couple of years which would truly promote Bangladesh and it’s heritage to the broader Australian community and make a mark. Focusing on this, LWFB actively started working on this project since August 2017 and liaised with Ministry of Cultural Affairs Bangladesh, Cockington Green Garden Authority and the Bangladesh High Commission Australia. After numerous meetings both in Canberra and Dhaka it’s been decided to build the miniature structure of Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban or National Parliament House at Cockington Green Gardens to portray Bangladesh. If all goes well, the construction would commence in September 2018 and hope to be finished by early 2019.

LWFB would like to sincerely thank the following people for their fantastic and ongoing support for this project –

H.E. Mr. Asaduzzaman Noor, Cultural Minister, Ministry of Cultural Affairs Bangladesh
H. E. Mr. Mohammad Sufiur Rahman, High Commissioner for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji
Ms. Farida Yasmeen, Counsellor (Political) and Head of Chancery, Bangladesh High Commission Australia
And last but not least all the Bangladeshis residing in Australia.

Attached are a few pictures of the handover of the plans to Cockington Green Canberra by H.E. Mr. Mohammad Sufiur Rahman, Ms. Farida Yasmeen and Shamsuddin Shafi in June 2018.

Please do ask us if you’ve any queries in this regard.

Warm Regards

Bushra Khanum
President
Let’s Work for Bangladesh