There's a tradition of naming Canberra suburbs after Prime Ministers but not every former leader is represented.

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It's something Anna Hyslop noticed when she was looking at new land releases with her husband David.

"I just noticed that there weren't any new suburbs being named after Prime Ministers and some of them are missing, I noticed that Menzies is missing," she said.

She asked Curious Canberra: Why aren't new suburbs named after Prime Ministers?

I went looking for the answer and discovered five PMs who missed out and why Australia's longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, famously declined the honour.

Three deciding factors

I spoke to Dr David Headon, a Canberra historian who co-chairs the ACT Place Names Committee, which advises the ACT Government on "public place names, geographical naming and contentious naming matters."

New suburbs are still being named after Prime Ministers but only when they satisfy three well-established criteria.

"In the case of the ACT Place Names Committee, the individual has to be dead for at least one year," David said.

After 12 months have passed, the Place Names Committee will approach surviving family members to discuss the possibility of a commemorative suburb.

The new Canberra suburb of Whitlam. ( Supplied: ACT Government )

"We always in every single instance have (a) connection to the family (and) try to respond to the wishes of the family," he said.

But ultimately it comes down to safety.

"One might say (the) prime criterion... is the criterion of emergency services. And what I'm talking about there is when one suburb might sound perilously like another suburb," David said.

"The issue for John Gorton is that we have a suburb Gordon... so that meant one had to look elsewhere and that's the case for some."

The PMs who missed out

In April, the ACT Government officially opened Malcolm Fraser Bridge on the Majura Parkway. ( Supplied: ACT Government )

Australia has had 29 Prime Ministers, and 22 have passed away.

"We have 16 suburbs presently named after a Prime Minister, which is going to be 17 shortly with Whitlam," David said.

That leaves five former PMs without a suburb.

I spoke to Sharon Priestly, an ACT Place Names Officer, who explained other ways former leaders can be recognised if a suburb isn't possible.

"We've got John Gorton Drive in Molonglo Valley, and that's to commemorate the former Prime Minister," she said.

When Malcolm Fraser died in 2015, it presented a slight problem for the Place Names Committee given the suburb of Fraser already exists. Its namesake is Jim Fraser, a popular local MP.

The Committee approached the family of Malcolm Fraser with the idea of giving the suburb a dual-naming.

"In this case Mrs Fraser felt that it wasn't appropriate because in some way it might impact on the legacy of Big Jim Fraser," David said.

This year, a suitable landmark was found and the Malcolm Fraser Bridge on the Majura Parkway was opened in April.

John McEwen and William McMahon are yet to have suburbs named after them, which leaves just one former Prime Minister unaccounted for - Sir Robert Menzies.

The missing suburb of Menzies

In 1962 then Prime Minister Robert Menzies opened the Kings Avenue bridge in Canberra. ( Supplied: Richard Clough, courtesy National Library of Australia. )

Sir Robert Menzies famously opted out of the Canberra tradition and only one person knows why.

Heather Henderson, daughter of Sir Robert Menzies. ( ABC News: Sonya Gee )

I asked David whether he could comment on some of the rumours I'd heard and read online.

"I think you should speak to my very dear friend Heather Henderson, Sir Robert Menzies' daughter," he said.

David put us in touch and we arranged to meet.

Heather recalled a conversation she'd had with her late father.

"He said to me one day, 'Dear, I will not have a suburb in Canberra named after me and I depend on you to make sure this does not happen,'" she said.

"The reason is because you never know what sort of suburb it's going to be... He meant of course it could be a frightfully posh suburb, in which case he wouldn't really want to have it named after him."

Instead the R.G Menzies Walk along the north side of Lake Burley Griffin takes his name.

"To me that is a far better memorial to him than a suburb," Heather said.

"The lake is there because of him. If he walked along there today, he could look across and see Parliament House where he spent so much of his life."

'Will there be a Rudd, a Gillard and an Abbott?'

Anna, our Curious Canberran, wanted to know one more thing - whether the capital will one day see the suburbs of Rudd, Gillard and Abbott.

The capital may one day see the suburbs Turnbull, Gillard, Abbott and Rudd. ( AAP: Mick Tsikas/Lukas Coch/Dan Peled )

I put the question to David.

"In the case of the present and previous three Prime Ministers they would not appear to have an issue, a safety issue," he said.

"They've got to meet the criterion that they've pass on... but I'm hoping that that's going to be many years, indeed decades into the future."

Having learnt that new suburbs are still being named after Prime Ministers, Anna's now beginning to wonder where her newborn son may one day live.

"Little Leo's four weeks old and I've been thinking about where he might buy in the future if he stays in Canberra," she said.

"He could be living in Turnbull or even Shorten or Di Natale! Who knows what we have in the future."

As it turns out, you don't have to reach the highest office in the country to be considered by the Place Names Committee - nominations are open to the public and can be made online.

Also online is a database where you can search the namesake of any Canberra suburb or street.

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