In 2017, the 100 year old ANZAC Obelisk was refurbished and reinstated to its permanent home in Moore Park East. The Obelisk is an important reminder of the Great War and honours the departure of soldiers from the nearby barracks in Kensington.
Many ANZAC soldiers are buried far from the communities they come from, so memorials such as the Obelisk have been created to serve as places of remembrance. Veteran Affairs NSW, the Geographical Names Board and Spatial Services surveyors have identified and mapped over 1,700 of these memorials across the nation.
View of the Obelisk at the northern end of Anzac Parade circa 1917.
Commemorative artwork
To commemorate the Centenary period in 2018, a new extension to the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park will be constructed and new artwork will be introduced to the space. Acclaimed artist Fiona Hall was selected to create an art project for the extension.
Thea Anzac Memorial Centenary Project will include soil samples from hundreds of locations.
ANZAC Centenary Project
The artwork concept uses soil collected at locations that were either from an ANZAC First World War memorial, or suitable alternative such as the local school or a reserve where soldiers enlisted. The large list of locations mapped for the artwork represents the reach of the call to serve during the Great War.
The 1,700 soil samples will be displayed alongside plaques with their place name around the walls of the Hall of Service. The Soil Collection Program was launched in Bathurst on 27 March 2017 and in just 11 months 1,228 soil samples have been collected including soil from the ANZAC Obelisk in Moore Park.
The Obelisk was reinstated to a new permanent home in Moore Park East in 2017.
Soil collection at Moore Park East
Last month the Minister for Veterans Affairs, the Honourable David Elliott, led a small ceremony at the ANZAC Obelisk to collect a soil sample for this art project. The morning was attended by a group of local representatives including veterans from the Paddington Woollahra R.S.L. sub-branch.
The project has a live map so that you can follow the progress of the soil collections across Australia. Once the project is completed, Memorial visitors will be able to view information about each location including the ANZAC Obelisk right here in Moore Park.
Minister for Veterans Affairs, the Honourable David Elliott led the soil collection ceremony.
To learn more about the ANZAC Obelisk returning to Moore Park visit the blog here.