Mr Whitlam was lauded at the service as a giant of politics and a man dedicated to transforming the country’s social, cultural and economic future.

Though his plans have been seen on a grand national scale, it’s little known throughout the Bellingen Shire that Mr Whitlam also left his mark here.

On October 25, 1975 just 17 days before ‘the Dismissal’, Mr Whitlam visited Bellingen to open Bellorana Lodge.

In a statement released at the time, Mr Whitlam said “today I am determined to press on with the ordinary business of government, despite the current constitutional crisis”.

At the opening of Bellorana, Mr Whitlam said “the degree of community involvement in planning and building Bellorana was an example of cooperation between the Australian Government and voluntary organisations which characterised the Government’s approach to social needs”.  

Mr Whitlam’s civic welcome in Bellingen was hosted by president of the Bellingen Shire Council, Dr J McLachlan.

The Bellinger Courier-Sun reported the civic reception and said Mr Whitlam believed the “local people knew their own area best” and listed a range of shire organisations which had benefitted from federal funding, such as Bellingen High School, St Mary’s Bellingen, Dorrigo Children’s Commission and Creative Arts Centre and Holy Name, Urunga.

In total, Mr Whitlam said under his Labor Government, council had received an extra $33,000 in funds, an increase of 29.9 percent on the year before.

“The Australian Government is determined to increase equality of services and opportunities in the region,” he said.

The funds for Bellorana were given under the Australian Assistance Plan. It paved the way for local government to receive federal grants and at the time was challenged unsuccessfully by the NSW and Victorian state governments.

“Had the state governments been successful,” Mr Whitlam said, “it could have endangered federal grants for old people’s homes and hostels, such as Bellorana, as well as services as meals on wheels, isolated children’s allowances and many other social welfare services.”

Mr Whitlam’s legacy is hotly debated within political circles: a visionary who shaped a more modern Australia, with equality at its heart; or an ­economically irresponsible leader whose policies were poorly planned and unaffordable.

Either-or, Mr Whitlam has been named as a reason for many parliamentarians to enter politics, and his visit to Bellingen created one such future MP.

Joel Fitzgibbon was a child when he first met Mr Whitlam in Bellingen for the opening of Bellorana.

Mr Fitzgibbon’s family was there to visit his grandmother and years later, Mr Whitlam became a mentor to the Hunter MP when he entered Federal Parliament and was a sounding board during Mr Fitzgibbon’s years as a minister in the Rudd Government.