Proposal for Randwick Council's project for second monument on Anzac Parade

Email: president@militaryhistorynsw.com.au

Telephone: 0419 698 783

MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY OF NSW PROPOSAL FOR RANDWICK CITY COUNCIL’S HERITAGE REVIEW OF ANZAC PARADE

Randwick City Council in Sydney is conducting an Anzac Parade Heritage Study to investigate the potential heritage significance of Anzac Parade and has revived a long-forgotten vision to complement the Anzac Parade Memorial Obelisk near Moore Park Road with a memorial at the Parade’s southern end at La Perouse. The Council has invited stakeholders to participate and we are grateful for this opportunity to make a contribution.

Historical background

Anzac Parade, named Randwick Road before 1917, is particularly significant in the military history of New South Wales since it was the parade route used by Australian soldiers on their way to embarkation for various theatres of the First World War. Surrounded by cheering crowds, on 18 August 1914 troops of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF) marched up Randwick Road to join HMAS Berrima at Cockatoo Island, destined for German New Guinea (image 1).

Image 1: ANMEF troops marching on Randwick Road

Later, soldiers of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) traversed the same route for embarkation points at Garden Island and Woolloomoloo Wharf, having camped at the Showground, Randwick Racecourse and other local sites used as billets and training grounds during this period.

Randwick Road was part of the main road network to Randwick as well as the entry point to Moore Park in the late-1860s. Moore Park was once part of the Sydney Common, and was dedicated as public parkland by Sydney City Council in 1866. The land became a major sporting and entertainment venue and comprised the Zoological Gardens (1879), the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) Showground and the first course of the Australian Golf Club (1882). During this early period the gateway to Moore Park was formalised with three decorative sandstone columns erected on either side of the road (after some movements these have now been reinstated near their original position).

At the outbreak of the First World War, many men who responded to the call-up to join the AIF were brought to various depots and camps radiating from these parklands for training at the Randwick Army Barracks Rifle Range (now part of the Randwick Environment Park) and the mobilisation camp in Malabar (now the Anzac Rifle Range). Some were billeted at the RAS Showground and others at camps on Randwick Racecourse (image 2), Kensington Racecourse (now the University of New South Wales) and Rosebery Racecourse. 

Image 2: AIF recruits encamped at Randwick Racecourse

The RAS Showground saw hundreds of thousands of men pass through during the war. While many arrived from around the country, most were departing to or returning from battlefields. Among the earliest units raised by the AIF, the 1st Infantry Battalion was formed at Randwick in August 1914, within the first fortnight of the war.

In her book The Anzacs, Patsy-Adam Smith writes “Sergeant-Majors took charge of more men than they had ever dreamt of handling and taught them to form fours in a rough way before marching them off to one of the racecourses, Randwick, Kensington or Rose Bay (sic), or on to the showgrounds.”

The Anzac Parade Memorial Obelisk was symbolically erected at the head or northern end of Randwick Road at Moore Park and unveiled on 15 March 1917 to mark the opening and renaming of the remodelled roadway, now called Anzac Parade to commemorate the men who marched to war. At this time the Obelisk stood at the centre of the entrance to Anzac Parade, and preceded a row of gardens that ran the length of the road. It had previously been planted with a double row of Norfolk Island Pines with an outer row of alternating Moreton Bay Figs and Monterey Pines. The remodelled thoroughfare was widened and the failed Monterey Pines were replaced with Port Jackson Figs.

Approximately 6 metres high and standing on a stepped sandstone base, the tapered Obelisk is carved from pink-coloured sandstone, and features a four-sided pyramidal apex. A bronze laurel wreath is positioned on its front face and encloses the date '1917'.The lower portion of the monument, the plinth, consists of light-coloured sandstone masonry featuring a simple curved decorative motif at its top. The plinth features the name 'ANZAC PARADE' on the front side in large bronze lettering, and is located above a bronze plaque with details of the official unveiling. Two distinctive lanterns originally affixed at the midway point of the Obelisk were removed by the early 1950s but recently replaced.  

At the official unveiling or opening ceremony by the Lady Mayoress of Sydney on 15 March 1917, her husband the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Rt Hon R D Meagher MLA is reported in the Sydney Morning Herald to have said “that eventually there would be a continuous thoroughfare over six miles long from Moore Park right to the La Perouse monument." Some interpret this statement to mean he envisaged a second Anzac-related monument at the opposite end of Anzac Parade at La Perouse. However, the word “monument” may just be a reference to the existing plinth at La Perouse dedicated to the French explorer, which was erected in 1825. He is also reported to have said Anzac Parade would eventually extend to "the sacred spot where Captain Cook set foot on Australian soil", which would be further south at Kurnell.

The Obelisk was one of the earliest monuments dedicated to the role of the Anzacs in World War I, opened less than one year after the inauguration of Anzac Day. It also represents one of the earliest dedications to the Anzacs in New South Wales, preceding the Martin Place Cenotaph (1927) and the Hyde Park Anzac Memorial (1934).

During the First World War, Anzac Days followed the form of a minute's silence at 1:00pm, church services, and a march of troops through the city to a large military memorial service in the Domain, or the RAS Showground. After 1917 the Obelisk was the focus for Anzac Day observances, seeing it festooned with floral arrangements and wreaths (image 3). Together with Anzac Parade and its Memorial Grove of Trees, it became the diggers' own ANZAC memorial. 

Image 3: Anzac Parade Obelisk decorated for Anzac Day

In 1998 the Obelisk was moved approximately 300 metres south to a point on the median strip due to construction of the Anzac Parade exit portal of the Eastern Distributor. As a result it lost some of its strong landmark significance. It was then dismantled in 2014 to make way for the Albert "Tibby Cotter" Bridge. At the time of its centenary in 2017, the Obelisk was installed in its present location at the northernmost tip of Moore Park East, near the intersection of Anzac Parade and Moore Park Road (image 4).

Image 4: Anzac Obelisk in present location

Proposal

The Military History Society of New South Wales proposes:

1. The concept of two Anzac-related monuments at opposite points of Anzac Parade should be embraced to complete the March 1917 vision expressed by Lord Mayor Meagher, who seems to have had something generally like this in mind, and because it is intrinsic to the idea of a monumental boulevarde or commemorative parade route. The Obelisk was clearly intended as a marker of entry into Anzac Parade and should be complemented with an equivalent marker in the opposite direction. However, there is much leeway for interpretation of the Lord Mayor’s reported comments.   

2. The second monument should be located at a prominent site near the intersection of Anzac Parade and Allison Road/Dacey Avenue (image 5) rather than further south where Anzac Parade officially terminates at La Perouse. Owing to proximity, the intersection complements the Obelisk site better and is a more heavily patronised transport node (image 6). More importantly, it is located amidst the wartime camps and training grounds at the showground and racecourses, and so closer to where the Anzacs set off on parade. There appear to be suitable public lands forming parts of Moore Park and Centennial Park facing the intersection. 

Image 5: Location of proposed monument

Image 6: Intersection Anzac Parade, Dacey Avenue, Alison Road

3. Under Randwick City Council’s current ‘Anzac Parade Monument La Perouse Trust’ project, the second monument is to be located at La Perouse between Anzac Parade’s southern terminus and Goorawahl Avenue. But this vicinity is already dominated by the non-Anzac related La Perouse Monument plinth of 1825 and adjacent La Perouse Museum, dedicated to the French explorer Jean François de Galaup comte de Lapérouse, after whom the suburb is named. An Anzac-related monument would be overshadowed by these landmarks. 

4. As the existing monument at the northern entrance to Anzac Parade is in the form of an obelisk, it would be fitting for the second monument to be inspired by classical antiquity as well, but of a different type. 

5. While the obelisk originates from ancient Egypt, the Society proposes that the second monument take the form of a monumental arch, which derives from classical Rome. Naturally the dimensions of such an arch should be adapted to the location. 

6. Roman arches were built to commemorate sacrifice and accomplishment in war, representing an honorific canopy under which the nation’s soldiers marched to or from the battlefield. Given its history, this is particularly apt in the case of Anzac Parade. 

7. The arch has resonances of poignant memorials to soldiers, including Australian soldiers, killed on the Western Front of World War I, such as Menin Gate, Belgium (image 7), and the Thiepval Memorial, France. 

Image 7: Menin Gate

8. The combination of obelisk and arch features in the vistas of some great world cities. For example Rome is distinguished by thirteen Egyptian obelisks and famous arches like the Arch of Constantine and the Arch of Titus. In Paris the Champs-Elysees is flanked by the Arc de Triomphe at one end and the Obelisk of Luxor on Place de la Concorde at the other. 

-      Council of the Military History Society of New South Wales

The Society's main website is www.militaryhistorynsw.com.au