Australian War Memorial

 Treloar Cres, Campbell ACT 2612, Australia +61 2 6243 4211 Website 10am – 5pm Canberra Campervan Hire

flummoxionic (contributor)

The Australian War Memorial is the national capital icon and is considered one of the nation’s best. The Australian War Memorial was opened in 1941. It is a collection of historical information, memorabilia, paintings reflecting to Australian men and women involvement in world war conflict. The collections range from Boer War (South African War), WWI to recent Gulf War, which covers large information. Also is a place for conserving Australian cultural heritage.

Inside the War Memorial visitors are able to see many exhibitions on display. The exhibitions are well assembled. You will see uniforms that Australian soldiers and nurses wear, they are also American, German, Russian, British and others. There’s scenery of important battles. Tanks from WWI, the Japanese mini sub, the Korean War and many more are display. Inside the War Memorial you could spent all day just observing and reading the display.

On the side of the building there are two large wall of which names of fallen loved one is scribed. For remembrance red poppies are placed by relatives. Not far from the Pool of Reflection is the Domed, inside the Domed is the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier (1914-1918).

Outside the building there is a statue of Simpson and his Donkey. John Simpson is Australian hero. At Gallipoli with heavy bombardment, Simpson and a donkey carried water up Shrapnel Gulley and bring the wounded soldiers into safer area.

Along the Anzac Parade there are several memorials representing Australian involvement in War, the Vietnam War memorial is one of them.

Open daily between 10.00am-5.00pm.

Free admission. Donation box at the entrance.

bruneauapus (contributor)

Dear reader – sit down and let me tell you a story – a story of Canberra’s first statue and war memorial.

But before I start – while driving by the War Memorial last week (Dec 2014) I noticed that Bellona was missing from her pedestal. I will investigate and update, but once you have read this review you may not be surprised by this latest twist. The Memorial’s website provides no clues. Update July 2015 – The good lady has been returned to her pedestal. Where she has been I don’t know.

In 1916 sculptor Bertram Mackennal, unable to sell this sculpture – entitled War or Bellona – Goddess of War – decided to offer it as a gift to Australia as a tribute to Australian solders in WWI (especially the Anzac’s). It was accepted but it took five years before Prime Minister Hughes sent a thank-you letter – five years during which Bellona lay hidden in a Melbourne celler.

The sculpture was installed on the steps of the then Parliament House in Melbourne on Anzac Day 1921. When Parliament moved to Canberra it was decided that Bellona’s busty company was not required and the Australian War Memorial, then under construction and perhaps an obvious home for the statue, wanted nothing to do with it. Such a display of cleavage was not appropriate for the new Capital. Anyway in 1926 she arrived in Canberra minus her tasteful black marble plinth which was replaced with a crude concrete substitute.

Bellona, Canberra’s first statue, was placed on the southern side of the Molonglo River (pre lake days of course) on Commonwealth Avenue between the two traffic lanes and close to the Albert Hall. Bellona was soon christened Boadicea or Bodie by the locals who loved. The politicians, perhaps of higher morals in those days, still found her hard to take.

People soon decided it was time for fun.

New Years’ Eve revelers on 1 January 1932 adorned Bodie with a wire street waste paper receptacle (placed atop her helmet) and a beer bottle. In 1933 her exposed bust was covered, with an article of women’s wearing apparel’. In March 1939 a pair of conical breast shields made from softened gramophone records adorned her nakedness. Later she had her breasts ‘brasso’ polished by pranksters to a high gleam.

Panic struck the hierarchy in 1954 when Queen Elizabeth II was to visit Canberra for the first time. Bellona was smack bang in the middle of the processional route – what would her Majesty think ? And worse still, what would Her Majesty think if pranksters stuck? The police assured everyone pranksters would not strike. Thirty-six hours before the arrival of the Queen, Bellona was found sporting an oversized pink bra. The next night green paint was applied. Bellona was removed. It was announced that the move and royal visit were unrelated and Bellona was just moving to her rightful home at the Australian War Memorial.

A few days later pranksters placed a tombstone on the empty site – engraved “RIP Goddess Bellona”.

As it happened, Bellona took a circuitous route to the War Memorial via a Government building in Parkes and the grounds of Government House in Yarralumla. The 3km trip took 36 years. After 12 years at the Memorial, in 1993 “the grounds for a sculpture garden required preparation” and Bellona would have to be moved temporarily again and so she was – to within 100metres of her 1926 position by the Albert Hall.

In August 1999 Bellona made her final move to her current position in the new Australian War Memorial Sculpture Garden, backing on to the Lone Pine tree and at a suitably modest distance away from the memorial lest she offend 21st century visitors to the War Memorial in the way she did our early 20th century politicians. Do walk through the grass for a closer look – evidently funds were insufficient to provide a path – or were they?

SailingDrifter (contributor)

This should top the list as a ‘must see’. Situated across the lake from Parliament House, along the Anzac Avenue axis (see heading photo) and directly below Mt Ainslie, the Australian War Memorial is the seemingly contrasting combination of a world-class war museum and a very solemn war memorial. You will be alternately fascinated and depressed by what you find there. The overall effect is tremendously moving.

I would suggest that you allow a day for a visit if possible. If only half a day is available, ensure you visit the Shrine to the Unknown Soldier and the Hall of Memories (where there are plaques listing over 100,000 Australians who have died in wars involving our country – well over half in WW1).

There are free guided tours of the Memorial. For those interested in family genealogy, there is also a comprehensive database of military records, available to family members.

zoeconsist (contributor)

The exploits of a man and his donkey during the ill-conceived and executed battle on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey are the stuff of legend. How this man carried wounded troops back from the front line, time after time, is one of the great Australian epics of heroism under fire. It is held in such high esteem that this statue holds a pride of place as you walk from the carpark to the museum.
During the current, at times hysterical, debate over immigration, this man’s exploits were held as a prime example of what it means to be an Australian and what our values are. The high ranking politician who espoused this was perhaps unaware that Simpson was, in point of fact, an illegal immigrant and lied his way to get into the army. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

riding_tack (contributor)

Each year on ANZAC Day (25 April) thousand of veterans, serving personnel and members of the general public attend the dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra to remember those who have served and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for Australia in various wars and conflicts down the ages.

When the dawn service is over a small group of veterans and others make there way into the bush to a small clearing on the slopes of Mt Ainslie some 300 metres behind the War Memorial. A second service of remembrance is held here (and has been for around 15 years), at the Aboriginal War Memorial plaque, to remember Aboriginal people who have served in the Australian forces.

By law, Aboriginals were not permitted to serve in Australia’s armed forces until after WWII. This did not stop thousands enlisting and many dying for their country. In particular 1000s served in the Boer War – pre Australian Federation and again around 3000 are thought to have served in World War II.

Australia’s main national war memorials are on Anzac Parade and are in the main rather grand affairs. I have written separate reviews on each of them with a summary review ANZAC Parade – Memorials. Arguably these memorials which are focused on particular wars, campaigns or parts of the Australian armed services represent and commemorate all Australians – indigenous and non-indigenous.

There have, nonetheless, been and are ongoing calls for a specific Aboriginal war memorial to be erected on ANZAC Parade. Regrettably this is as much a political hot potato as it is anything else – and as such I leave it to my readers to draw their own conclusions.

The current privately erected non-official (though accepted) memorial plaque was erected in 1994 and is a very simple, though moving tribute and certainly worthy the short detour from the Australian War Memorial to see it. In many senses the simplicity and the bush setting of this plaque makes it even more poignant than the much larger and more formal memorials on ANZAC Parade.

To get to the memorial plaque, take the path to the summit Mt Ainslie from the back of the War Memorial for about a hundred and fifty metres and you will come across a sign directing you to the Aboriginal Plaque, 70 metres to the left of the summit track.

If you have come by way my Australian War Memorial summary tip please click here to return to that tip if you so wish.

styleruntime (contributor)

I never knew the man, only his wife and his son. At the age of 35 he found himself in the god forsaken mud that was the battlefield at Ypres. He had travelled from South Australia and married Bathia and they lived at Wilberforce to the west of Sydney on a farm.

By all accounts it was a happy existence until the war intervened. On the way over he had written home on the leaves from pussy willow trees. Echoes from the past that resonate still from a shelf in my study room. Heart rending epithets such as “To Bessie from W. My thoughts are always of you and Tom”; “There are some nice places but none so nice as home”; “To Bessie from W. far across the sea”; “From A55 to Kelmont, where would I rather be?”. I find it a bit gut-wrenching reading them now.

Thus it was that these are the last pieces of tangible evidence of his existence. On the 4th October, 1917, along with many others, he was blown to smithereens by shellfire defending a country halfway round the world that he probably hardly knew existed. Two thirds who died did so by shellfire in that conflict……..and for what? To placate a few male egos? Such were the times. And what have we learnt from them?

My father, his son, also joined the services and served in the Second World War in New Guinea and stayed in the R.A.A.F. till his retirement. I served for one year in my youth, falling short of the standard required for an armament fitter and luckily getting out. My sons are anti war, no doubt influenced to some degree by their father.

As one gets older one’s roots seem to take on a significance not apparent in one’s younger days and so it was that I made a pilgrimage to the War Memorial basement level to find out where my grandfather might be commemorated. It turns out there’s a plaque on the Menin Gate at the town of Ieper (formerly Ypres) in Belgium. It was a teary-eyed moment for me to find that out and the rest of my time in the War Memorial I seemed to be burdened with that information, unable to take in some of the exhibits as I might have.

rustsooner (contributor)

The Menin Gate Lions and the painting Menin Gate at Midnight are currently on loan to the Canadian War Museum and will then go to Belgian city of Ypres in time for the centenary of the battle of Passchendaele in 2017. The painting and the lions will return the Australian War Memorial in 2018.

It is rare that one finds medieval art or sculptures in Australia and probably the last place on would expect to encounter such would be in the Australian War Memorial, built in 1936 to commemorate the sacrifice of Australians who have died in war (essentially since the mid 1800s).

On entering the War Memorial you will encounter two lions, one on your right and one on your left, sentinels guarding the walkway to the Hall of Memory and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Context For details of the Menin Gate Memorial and Australia’s connection with Ypres see my separate review on the Menin Gate at Midnight’ – a painting on display at the Australian War Memorial. This will put this tip in context so I suggest you read it before proceeding if you have not already done so or are not already cognisant of the Menin Gate at Ypres. For those who would like a more detailed review of Leper (Ypres) which includes a very personal perspective I recommend you have a look at VT Member Breughel’s excellent page on Ieper.

Australian War Memorial literature indicates that the limestone lions, recovered from the Menin Gate at Ypres (now Ieper), Belgium toward the end of WWI were gifted to Australia in 1936 by the burgomaster (major) as a token of friendship and an acknowledgement of Australia’s sacrifice. In return Australia presented Ypres with a bronze casting of C. Web Gilbert’s sculpture Digger which is now on display in the Salient 1914—18 War Museum in the rebuilt Cloth Hall in Ypres.

It is interesting to note that there is no record of other Empire countries (Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, the UK, South Africa or India) having received any gift from Ypres. A statue from the Cloth Hall in Ypres currently in the Auckland Museum is thought to have been “souvenired” by an officer as opposed to having been gifted to New Zealand. The alternative, and probably more precise, view as to how the lions came to be in Canberra is that, the then, Australian Ambassador Bruce actually asked for the lions specifically for the Australian War Memorial then being built in Canberra and his wish was granted.

Where were the lions between the early 1920s and 1936? Yet another view, perpetuated by some local Ypres townsfolk is that Australian soldiers had already “self-gifted” themselves the lions and they were indeed already in Australia – hidden until the 1936 official gifting or request.

How the lions officially came into the possession of Australia doesn’t really matter any more. For others, and indeed Australia, the daily Last Post Ceremony performed, to this day, by the Ypres firemen is, in my view, ample thanks for Empire sacrifices in Ypres and Belgium. If you can, time your visit to the Australian War Memorial to coincide with its daily Last Post Ceremony which is held at 5pm (as the Memorial closes).

The lions (which each carry the coat-of-arms of Ypres) are thought to date back to the eleventh century and in later years to have stood at the entrance to the Cloth Hall, Ypres’ civic and commercial centre. In the mid to late1800s on the occasion of the refurbishment of the Cloth Hall the lions were moved to the Menin Gate which was really one of two cuttings (as opposed to a gate) in the towns medieval ramparts as you may discern in picture three attached – a pre war postcard of the old Menin Gate.

The lions stood and welcomed thousands of (and simultaneously farewelled, to their death, so many) Allied (mainly Empire) soldiers as they made their way to the Western Front during World War I. Over 36,000 Australian soldiers were killed or wounded on the battlefields of the Ypres Salient, most of them during the battles in 1917. Over 6,000 of them have no known grave and are now commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.

During the war the lions (most of the town was destroyed) were badly damaged by German artillery fire and, while recovered from the rubble, they were not incorporated into the Menin Gate Memorial built in 1927 – though it does include a single much larger lion which sits atop the Memorial.

Until 1985 the lions (for the most part one only) were displayed at the War Memorial in their original damaged state. Between 1985 and 1987 the lions were restored by Kasimiers L. Zywuszko, a Polish-born sculptor. The restoration work was deliberately not blended in’ such that visitors can easily distinguish the restored from the non restored. In 1991 the lions were again put on display at the Memorial, in the position you see them today.

officerwack (contributor)

About the last thing you’d expect to find in a war museum is a floor mosaic from historical times. I, for one, was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled across the Shellal Mosaic that was originally housed in a Palestinian chapel.
The Hellenistic style of the vine trellis has pagan connotations. The full symmetry of design, detailed tonality of the animals create realistic 3 dimensional aspects of them. For me I was immediately reminded of the superb, virtually intact example at Aquileia in northern Italy.

You can also see the merging of styles with the Hellenistic vine linking to the Roman isometric border and the symmetry being very Gazaean in design.

When it comes to the Christian ideals of the floor piece it is obvious that the architecture of the church was extremely basic and primitive, with a simple rectangular floor and no presence of an apse. The only clue to where the altar may have been is the journey, one might say, of the central links of vines that symbolise traditional offerings, leading from one small crucifix cross to the top one where the altar may have been.
At the top there is an inscription that says:

“this temple with rich mosaics did decorate our most holy bishop…and the most Pious George, priest and sacristan, in the year 622 according to the era of Gaza, In the tenth year of the indication”.

An art historian by the name of Henderson has interpreted it as an allegory of salvation:
The Vine is Christ as well as the Tree of Life that shelters all of god’s creatures, and each animal represents either a virtue or aspect of humanity such as the Peacock (resurrection and eternal life). Down the centre, the subjects that arent of wildlife each have thier own meaning. The Amphora is the water of life with the unconsecrated water being in the west (at the bottom of the mosaic) and the baptismal or holy water being in the ast (at the top before the altar).

Latest Images of Australian War Memorial, Canberra