Neil Renfree was a leading architect in Canberra during the boom years of the National Capital Development Commission.

We first met as teenagers at Canberra High School and later were both students of architecture at Sydney University. The parallels continued when Neil graduated and joined the Commonwealth Department of Works where I was working as a cadet architect.

Neil was passionate about the profession of architecture and a pioneer of quality assurance in building design and architectural education. The (then Royal) Australian Institute of Architects had come into being in 1930, almost thirty years after federation and three years after the Commonwealth Parliament had moved from Melbourne to Canberra.

A Canberra Area Committee within the New South Wales Chapter of the new national Institute looked after the interests of Canberra architecture and architects but the rapid growth of Canberra in the Fifties and Sixties demanded closer involvement of the profession with builders and town planners.

An ACT Chapter of the Institute was established in 1962. Neil was an early president, following in the footsteps of Malcolm Moir, John Scollay, Peter Harrison and Horrie Holt. As the first youngblood homegrown architect, Neil devoted himself to spreading the word about design and construction to a young and enthusiastic Canberra community.

We were a small but busy Chapter Council. The Monaro Mall, now much expanded as the Canberra Centre, was Australia's first three-level shopping centre and a popular public meeting place.

The management there welcomed our use of its lofty and well lighted spaces for displays of building models and plans for an attractive and liveable city. Neil arranged open houses, tours of embassies and exhibitions of Danish furniture and silverware. We introduced the C S Daley Medal, a new award for housing in Canberra's new towns and created a striking bronze Canberra Medallion to rival the Sulman Medal of the NSW Chapter.

It was totally appropriate that in due course Neil received the Chapter's Canberra Medallion, its highest award for architectural excellence, for his grandstand at the Canberra Racecourse. Neil also found the time in 1988 to stage a highly successful national convention of the Institute at the Albert Hall and the newly renovated Hotel Canberra. This is the only time I believe that an Institute convention has shown a small but welcome profit.

Neil Renfree also gave generously of his time with his Rotary Club and other community ventures. He represented the best ambitions of his family and a generation of Australians who value both quality and creativity in our built environment and open spaces.

– Roger Pegrum, November 2025