From pirates to chivalry, new image of War Memorial takes shape

Sun filters through the Scott Carver-designed oculus – which in Latin means eye – to illuminate 15 words used to describe the qualities of Australian defence personnel, ranging from loyalty and comradeship to endurance and devotion. The words also form part of the memorial’s most revered monument, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Light from the rising and setting sun strikes the glass Quiet skies, as the sun rises sculptures that hang over two stairwells that take visitors up into the memorial.

Made by Canberra artist Annette Blair, each contains around 800 handmade pieces of glass to represent eucalypt leaves. As the sun moves across the installation, they sparkle and cast shadows across each stairwell.

They work as a reflection of the Australian bush as well as marking the practice of past wars when loved ones would send pressed eucalypt leaves to men and women on the front line.

The sculptures and new installations are prominent parts of the memorial’s overhaul. But some elements, unseen by visitors, would test army engineers.

Jacks were used to raise the front elements of the memorial so that work could be carried out. Given the age of the building, asbestos and lead paint has been found. At one point, excavation revealed a part of the memorial was effectively sitting on a rubble pit of old bricks.

The sandstone used to clad the Canberra red bricks used to build the edifice came from the same quarry used for the memorial’s original construction. But the quarry could only be accessed a couple of times a year, and then the sandstone had to be floated on a barge to a site in Gosford on the NSW Central Coast, where it could be milled.

One of the most popular, and striking, parts of the memorial is Anzac Hall, home to the Lancaster bomber, G for George.

More defence materiel will go into the redeveloped Anzac Hall, including a part of HMAS Brisbane, an F-111 Hornet, a Black Hawk helicopter and an Australian Bushmaster armoured vehicle.

But so large are these items, they will go into the hall before its completion. While carefully protected, walls and other elements of the hall will be built around them.

One of the reasons for the redevelopment of the memorial was display more of its collection – which runs to millions of items.

Wayne Hitches, the executive project director overseeing the work, notes that before the redevelopment, between 2 and 3 per cent of its items were available for the public. That will climb to be between 3 and 4 per cent.

While still a remarkably small portion, it speaks to the amount of items held in a memorial that was deliberately located to look over the federal parliament.

For three years, one of the memorial’s best known works of art – a sculpture of World War I private John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey at Gallipoli – had been kept in storage due to the ongoing works.

The sculpture, which had been designed to let people to rub the donkey’s nose, had since its creation in the 1980s been set to the northern side of the memorial. With the redevelopment, it is now placed alongside the stairs and elevator that will bring most visitors into the site.

The final elements of the project will not be completed until 2028 although the public areas should be finished next year including the revamped Anzac Hall.

The renovation’s delays and blowouts are not dissimilar to the problems in building the memorial in the first place. After a stop-start design competition, the first parts of the memorial were put in place in 1929 – and then almost immediately halted until 1933 due to the Great Depression.

Hitches said that despite the enormous amount of work, and some of the issues that have been confronted during construction, the overall completion of the redevelopment remained on track.

“We’ve hit all our targets and I’m sure we will continue to,” he said.

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