Anzac Memorial

Material in rock shelters reveals that Aboriginal people inhabited the Sydney Harbour area from at least 25,000 years ago. The Cardigal, who formed part of the Darug nation, were the Aboriginal traditional owners of the inner Sydney area, upon which the Anzac Memorial stands.[6][2][7] It is believed that the southern end of Hyde Park, where the ANZAC Memorial is located, was used as a "contest ground" for staging combative trials between Aboriginal warriors, watched avidly by the British in the early days of the colony.[8] It is remarkable that the State's most grand and monumental war memorial should be positioned on this historical site of indigenous combat.[2]

The term "Anzac"[9] began as an acronym for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in World War I, but it was soon accepted as a word in its own right. The Anzacs formed part of the expeditionary force organised by Britain and France to invade the Gallipoli Peninsula and clear the Dardanelles Straits for the British Navy. The Australian Anzacs represented the national effort from a young nation taking its part in the Great War and reports of the courage they displayed at Gallipoli became the most enduring legend of Australian military history (Government Architect's CMP, 2007).[2]

After the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the Anzac infantry divisions went on to fight against Germany on the Western Front. The Light Horse fought to protect the Suez Canal against the Turks and joined the forces fighting in the Middle East. On the anniversary of Anzac Day in 1918, the Australian infantry reinforced the legend when it stopped the German advance at Villers-Bretonneux on the Somme. Australians were successfully used as shock troops at Ypres, Amiens, Mont St Quentin and Peronne, and took a leading part in breaking through the Hindenburg Line, in their last major offensive.[10][2]

From an Australian population of around four and a half million, enlistments in the army and navy numbered 416,809, a total that represents one-half of the men of military age in Australia at that time. Altogether, 60,000 Australians were killed and 167,000 were injured, a higher toll proportionately than was suffered by any other British Empire country. Small wonder that those who returned wanted to see the sacrifice of their dead comrades remembered.[10][2]

The first Anzac Day in NSW was organised by a committee within the Returned Soldiers Association (RSA) of NSW, an organisation formed by men who had been invalided home. Later the organisation was subsumed by the Returned Soldiers' Sailors' (and Airmen's) Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA), finally named the Returned and Services League (RSL). The original objectives of the day of commemoration were to remember dead comrades, induce young men to enlist and collect money for an ANZAC Memorial monument. NSW Premier WA Holman's Labor government promised a pound for pound subsidy to match the money raised on the first Anzac Day. In 1917 the RSSILA requested that 25 April be declared 'Australia's National Day' and gazetted as a public holiday. Both the Queensland and Australian governments made Anzac Day a public holiday in 1921. The official public holiday was first gazetted in NSW in 1925.[10][2]

Historian Ken Inglis believes that the "war memorial" is a twentieth century concept which memorialised the human cost of war rather than the victorious outcome, as the former military monuments had done, and celebrated the sacrifice of ordinary soldiers rather than focusing on the men who led them. The names of those who made the ultimate sacrifice are differentiated from the names of those who returned. Whether returned or not, the memorials record the soldiers' service to the nation. This trend to list both the returned and the fallen was uniquely Australian, reflecting the all volunteer nature of the Australian forces.[10][2]

Each capital city developed its own major memorial, with many smaller memorials in the suburbs, and regional areas. The major memorials and their dates of construction are as follows:[2]

• Darwin Cenotaph, Darwin – 1921
• Hobart War Memorial, Hobart −1925
• State War Memorial Cenotaph, Perth – 1928–1929
• Shrine of Remembrance, Brisbane – 1930
• National War Memorial, Adelaide – 1931
• Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne – 1928–1934
• ANZAC Memorial, Sydney – 1934
• Australian War Memorial, Canberra – 1941[10][2]

The earlier memorials are generally in the form of obelisks, sometimes with applied sculpture, while most of the later examples are commemorative buildings with a range of rooms and uses. The social meanings of war memorials increased in complexity as time went on. The later examples such as the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, 1934, the ANZAC Memorial in Sydney, 1934 and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, 1941, represented the new trends in the symbolism of memorials more than the simple columns, obelisks and statues of citizen soldiers erected during the fighting and immediately after it. The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne is the most comparable monument to the ANZAC Memorial in Australia, both comprising one principal commemorative space, surrounded and above a series of administrative and exhibition spaces, contained within an imposing landmark building in differing architectural styles, set within a formal landscape.[10][2]

In 1918 the RSSILA in 1918 published its aims for the monument:

1. The building was to be a memorial for those who died;
2. It was to be architecturally worthy of its high purpose;
3. It was to provide headquarters for those working to assist widows and children of those who were killed and also, those AIF members who returned;
4. It was to house the records of the AIF;
5. It would be a meeting place and a source of assistance with repatriation; and
6. It would provide a centre for any later campaigns on behalf of the AIF and their dependants.[10][2]

After 1919, all the state's war memorial building committees were required to seek expert advice from a War Memorials Advisory Committee comprising representatives from the Town Planning Association, Institute of Architects (NSW), Royal Society of Artists and the National Art Gallery (NSW). A proposal to build the memorial on Observatory Hill was withdrawn due to the planned proximity of the roads leading onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge.[11] The proposal to use part of Hyde Park for the Anzac Memorial was promoted by former city surveyor Norman Weekes who was redesigning Hyde Park after it had been virtually destroyed during the construction of the city railway. Assisted by architect Raymond McGrath, Weekes produced a plan with two axial avenues running north -south and east–west, the latter being in line with the transept of St Mary's Cathedral. He envisaged the intersection of these avenues as an ideal site for a commemorative column and balanced that with an Anzac Memorial at the southern end. However, progress on the memorial was impeded until legislation established a Board of Trustees for the building and the manner in which the site would be chosen was passed in 1923.[10][2]

The Trustees gained Parliamentary approval for Weekes' plan in 1929 on the condition that the area dedicated to the memorial would be limited in size. The Advisory Board for the Hyde Park Remodelling chose the southern end of the park to site the monument. The National Council of Women and Anzac Fellowship of Women objected to this site because it was considered to be insufficiently commanding, while artist Julian Ashton pointed out that skyscrapers would soon overshadow its position.[10][2]

About this time another war memorial was bequeathed to Australians by the late JF Archibald, co-founder of the Bulletin newspaper, to commemorate the association of Australia and France in the Great War of 1914–1918. Created by Franois Sicard who had won the Prix de Rome in 1891, the Public Trustee requested that it be installed at the site of Weekes' proposed column at the northern end of Hyde Park. Major Hubert Colette and JB Waterhouse supervised the erection of the Archibald Memorial Fountain, which was completed on 14 March 1932. This was when work was beginning on the ANZAC Memorial building at the southern end of the same avenue.[10][2]

Debates about the style of the ANZAC Memorial can be generally divided into soldiers' versus women's groups which supported utility versus beauty respectively. The majority of returned soldiers looked for a building that would meet their immediate needs for association, while women's groups tended to favour a structure that would be commemorative. After ten years of debate, the RSSILA and the disabled veterans bodies all agreed on Anzac Day 1928 that the building "should be commemorative rather than utilitarian". As the RSSILA state president Fred Davison expressed it, the League had finally agreed to a "shrine of remembrance" such as their Victorian counterparts had begun to build. The soldiers' needs were not entirely abandoned and in the spirit of compromise one-seventh of the funding was allocated to incorporate offices where the returned soldiers' organisations could look after their members.[10][2]

The uncertainty about both site and building style of the ANZAC Memorial combined with the long wait for its construction left Sydney without a focal point for Anzac Day ceremonies. Around 1925 the Lang Labor government responded to the urging of the NSW RSSILA by donating 10,000 pounds for a cenotaph in Martin Place, near where wartime appeals and recruitment rallies had been held. This was also the place where the Armistice Day crowds had honoured their "Glorious Dead" at the war's end on 11 November 1918. It was consecrated on 8 August 1927, becoming the focus of Anzac Day ceremonies some eight years before the ANZAC Memorial building was available for such purposes. Sydney's Anzac Day Dawn Service was never been moved to the ANZAC Memorial because the Cenotaph had already become the accepted site and Martin Place had stronger war-time associations than Hyde Park.[10][2]

A competition for the design of the memorial was commissioned on 13 July 1929. Entrants were required to be Australians qualified to work as architects within or outside NSW, the latter persons being required to register in the state if they won. Competitors could confer with an Australian sculptor, either while designing the competition entry or during its construction. All entrants had to register by 30 January 1930 and present their entries two weeks later. The judges were Professor A. S. Hook, Dean of the Sydney University Faculty of Architecture Professor Leslie Wilkinson, and the Public Trustee E. J. Payne. The winner would be appointed the ANZAC Memorial architect. The cost of the building was limited to £75,000 calculated at rates current at the time of entry. In addition to the memorial itself the building was required to provide office accommodation for the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League, TB Soldiers' Association and the Limbless Soldiers' Association.[10][2] The Trustees received 117 entries in the competition and chose seven for second stage consideration which were exhibited in the Blaxland Galleries in Farmers Department Store (now Grace Bros). In February 1930 the prize-winning entries were announced by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Philip Game.[12] Third prize was awarded to Peter Kaad, second prize to John D. Moore and the winner was Bruce Dellit. The successful contractors for the building works were Kell & Rigby.[13] According to Building magazine, most people agreed that Dellit's design for the ANZAC Memorial was the best in the competition.[10][2]

In his entry, Dellit submitted a model with photographs of it from all angles and 17 drawing sheets including an aerial perspective and an isometric section in Dellit's own words: "ENDURANCE COURAGE AND SACRIFICE – these are the three thoughts which have inspired the accompanying design, and it is around the last mentioned that it develops". Dellit explained that the central sculpture "sacrifice" was placed in the lower chamber "like a famous French tomb" – Napoleon's tomb – to "offer visitors an opportunity for a quiet, dignified, physical and mental acknowledgment of the message".[10][2]

Australian-born Charles Bruce Dellit studied at Sydney Technical College under Byera Hadley from 1912 to 1918 and continued his professional education at the University of Sydney. Dellit registered as an architect in June 1923 and established his own practice six years later. Before winning the ANZAC Memorial competition, he had designed Kyle House in Macquarie Place featuring the "monumental entrance arch" that became one of his characteristic motifs. It also shows his interest in American Art Deco skyscrapers and the patterned brickwork espoused by contemporary Dutch and German schools. Along with his contemporary Emil Sodersten, he is considered to have pioneered the Art Deco style in Australia. Dellit employed a more pronounced use of ornament and symbolism while Sodersten relied more on form and materials for his architecture. Many of the notable Art Deco buildings in Sydney were designed by these architects.[10][2]

In designing the ANZAC Memorial, Dellit used sculptural and architectural imagery to express collective mourning at the death of so many young men from NSW. The form of the sculpture changed with the involvement of Rayner Hoff, whom Dellit engaged after he had won the competition. Hoff greatly strengthened the imagery by replacing Dellit's seasons and sculptures representing the arts of war and peace with figures representing all branches of the armed services. The Pool of Reflection that mirrors the building on the northern side remains Dellit's call for passers-by to stop and remember.[10][2]

Similarly, while the central sculpture "Sacrifice" at the heart of the building is Hoff's, the form of the interior, itself very emotive, is Dellit's. Dellit used impressive staircases flanked by memorial urns to lead the visitor up into the Hall of Memory. Once there, they must bow their heads to look into the Well of Contemplation in order to contemplate "Sacrifice", which is in the Hall of Silence below or look up to see the dome decorated with 120,000 golden "Stars of Memory", each representing a serviceman or woman from NSW. Dellit's architecture and Hoff's sculptures greatly enhance each other to provide an artistically integrated emotional message.[10][2]

According to Maisy Stapleton, the greatest exponents of the Art Deco style in Sydney were the architects C. Bruce Dellit and Emil Sodersten. She considered that Dellit's highest achievement was the ANZAC Memorial, "a vision of modern form and strong, emotive expression closely allied to popular sentiment" and described the memorial as "the epitome of Art Deco in Australia".[10][2]

Dellit died of cancer on 21 August 1942 only eight years after the ANZAC Memorial was ceremoniously opened. It is considered his finest achievement by some, "a vision of modern form and strong, emotive expression closely allied to popular sentiment." His later works included two chapels at Kinsela's Funeral Parlour, Darlinghurst, 1933 and several bank buildings in the city as well as numerous competition entries. The Bulletin obituary described him as an "arresting and vital figure Everything about him was big".[10][2]

George Rayner Hoff was born in 1894 on the Isle of Man. His father later moved the family to Nottingham in England where Rayner Hoff worked in a stonemason's yard while still at school. At 14 he commenced work in an architect's office and later furthered his training by studying drawing and design at the Nottingham School of Art. In 1915 Hoff enlisted in the army and served on the Western Front the following year. After the war he studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London under Frances Derwent Wood and in 1922 he won the Prix de Rome.[10][2]

Hoff arrived in Sydney in August 1923 and began work as head teacher of modelling and sculpture at East Sydney Technical College, Darlinghurst (Sydney's major art school), where he also established his private studio. Hoff exerted an enormous influence on the progress of Australian sculpture. By the end of the decade, Hoff's work at the college produced a school of gifted sculptors and assistants. It was, according to Deborah Edwards, "perhaps the sole instance of a coherent school of production among sculptors in Australian history". In 1925 Hoff completed reliefs for the Dubbo War Memorial and in 1927 he was commissioned to design the sculptures on the National War Memorial, South Australia.[10][2]

In 1930 Dellit commissioned Hoff to design the sculptures for the ANZAC Memorial. Creating the numerous sculptures on the ANZAC Memorial became the pinnacle of Hoff 's career. The task involved creation of sixteen seated and four standing figures of servicemen and women in cast synthetic stone, four corner cast stone reliefs and two long bronze bas-reliefs over the eastern and western doors outside the building. Hoff's contributions to the interior also included designing the form of the 120,000 faceted gold stars that covered the domed ceiling, four relief panels showing the march of the dead, each superimposed with symbolic representations of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Army Medical Corps, and the marble wreath surrounding the Well of Contemplation that framed the view of Sacrifice below. Hoff and eight assistants were fully employed on the memorial between 1931 and 1934.[10][2]

Hoff gave considerable prominence to the female contributors to the war effort in the ANZAC Memorial, including the women who lost their fathers, husbands and sons. Nurses were prominent among the figures representing the services and women were central to the group sculpture, "Sacrifice". Hoff explained the prominent position of the women in this work in 1932: "Thousands of women, although not directly engaged in war activities lost all that was dearest to them. There was no acknowledgment of them in casualty lists, lists of wounded, maimed and killed. In this spirit I have shown them carrying their load, the sacrifice of their menfolk".[10][2]

In 1932 models for the two massive bronze groups intended for placement in front of the east and west windows were publicly exhibited. Hoff's "The Crucifixion of Civilisation 1914" and "Victory after Sacrifice 1918" both featured naked women as the central figures. The violent controversy that greeted the exhibition of these models prevented their development into full-size sculptures, with the sexual aspect of the imagery attracting the most intense criticism. In despair over the controversy, Hoff eventually destroyed the plaster models and refused to compromise his designs when the possibility of making them was raised again in 1934. The sculptures were never completed.[10][2]

Hoff's other public sculptures in Sydney included a bas-relief of Mercury in Transport House, York Street and several sculptures in Emil Sodersten's City Mutual Life Building in Hunter Street. However, in spite of his obvious success, Hoff was unable to shake the controversy about the unexecuted ANZAC Memorial sculptures. It remained with him until his early death from pancreatitis on 19 November 1937.[10][2]

The Trustees specified that the memorial must be built of Australian materials and by Australian workmen. Having been encouraged to give preference to returned servicemen, the contractors Kell & Rigby applied to the RSSILA Labour Bureau for their workers. Also working on the ANZAC Memorial were numerous sub-contractors. These professionals and artisans included structural engineers RS Morris & Co Ltd, masons Melocco Bros Ltd who carved the wreath around the Well of Contemplation, Messrs Loveridge and Hudson Ltd who prepared the granite facing on the outside walls, JC Goodwin and Co Ltd who supplied the amber glass, Art Glass Ltd, which completed the sandblasting, and T. Grounds and Sons who manufactured the stone figures on the buttresses and the funerary urns to Hoff's design. The London firm of Morris Singer & Co Ltd cast central sculpture and bronze panels over the doors but the flame surrounding the sculpture and the bronze grilles on the lower windows were made in Australia by Castle Bros, while Kell & Rigby themselves produced the bronze nails studding the doors. Homebush Ceiling Works made the ceilings and supplied the 120,000 stars for the dome, the latter being gilded by A. Zimmerman. Kellor and Yates completed the plasterwork. The Electrical and General Installation Co was responsible for the electrical installation and Nielsen and Moller made the light fixtures. Later, Dellit was able to persuade the City Council to supply temporary floodlighting for the building, a service made permanent in 1938.[10][2]

Originally, Dellit wanted the memorial to be built of sandstone or synthetic granite on an 18-inch base of Bowral trachyte. However, the building was actually constructed in red granite from quarries near Bathurst, NSW. The podium and semi-circular stairs were faced in granite; and the terrace was formed in terrazzo.[10][2]

In 1932 Dellit incorporated four stones from battlefields at Gallipoli, France, Palestine and New Guinea into the floors of the niches in the Hall of Memory in the form of the AIF Rising Sun. The names of major battles at each of these sites were added to the niche walls.[10] The dome of stars approved in 1933 was also a late inclusion. This feature began as a fundraiser when the project had lost support through the fracas over Hoff's exterior statues. To cover the shortfall in funding the memorial, the RSSILA offered 150,000 stars for sale at two shillings each. Although they were unable to sell the full number, 120,000 stars were fixed to the ceiling to represent all the state's volunteers. In order to facilitate their attachment to the plaster ceiling, they were fashioned from plaster of Paris and gilded.[10][2]

In another late change, the interior walls were lined in unpolished marble while polished marble covered the floors. All doors were originally to be bronze but funding shortages caused that specification to be changed to maple, studded with bronze nails. Dellit intended that each of the great amber windows would bear a different design for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Medical Corps. However, the building subcommittee asked for an alternative and a new design was etched on all the windows which combined the AIF symbol with a pattern of eternal flames.[10][2]

Dellit always intended that the office accommodation at the base of the building should be incorporated into the memorial when the need for its original use had passed. The ex-servicemen's offices featured joinery in silky oak and parquetry floors of red mahogany. Light fittings in the shape of stars echoed the dome in the Hall of Memories. On the eastern side Dellit added an Assembly Hall to balance the entry foyer on the west. This room had seating for 130 people and was available to all ex-servicemen's groups. In practice it was used mainly by the associations with offices in the building. Its small size and the ban on alcohol (which applied to the whole memorial) meant that few associations sought to hire it. It was not available for outside use from 1942 to 1957 while the RSL occupied it as an extension to their office.[10][2]

The inscriptions that Dellit intended for the memorial were another casualty of the design process. The Trustees consulted the poet Leon Gellert, then Professor Hook, who consulted Professor Mungo McCallum, librarian H. M. Green and historian C. E. W. Bean, about the inscriptions. These experts ruled against most of the numerous labels suggested by Dellit. The surviving inscriptions include those on the Foundation stones laid by Governor Game and Premier Bevan on 19 July 1932 which bear the words "A soldier set this stone" and "A citizen set this stone" to indicate the contributions both soldiers and citizens had made to the building. An inscription in the floor at the western entrance to the Hall of Silence, "Let Silent Contemplation be Your Offering" was also kept, as was a list of the major battles in the Hall of Silence. The experts chose a simple statement submitted by Hook, Green and Bean to mark the dedication of the building, stating, "This Memorial was opened by a son of the King on 24th November 1934".[10][2]

Another feature that was considerably altered was the landscaping. Dellit planned water gardens for either side of the memorial in the form of a narrow pool to the north and a cascading waterfall to the south. However, as the bulk of the building began to rise above the park, it became apparent that the scale of the water features needed to be increased to balance it. As a result, the cascades were eliminated and the pool extended to 170 feet (52 metres) long by 72 feet (22 metres) wide. Landscaping was completed by the City Council, which was responsible for the park. Finance for the additional work came from the state Unemployment Relief Fund and a large number of council employees and relief labourers poured the concrete for the pool in a single day to eliminate the need for joints and ensure that it was watertight. The Council acceded to Dellit's request to keep a clear open space around the memorial. It also followed his plan for a line of poplars on either side of the pool to symbolise the French battlefields. Dellit also wanted beds filled with the red poppies of Flanders and other plantings from the eastern and western fronts.[10][2]

Crowds attending the opening of the ANZAC Memorial were estimated at 100,000. Archbishop Sheehan boycotted the event on the grounds that it was "not entirely Catholic in character". In keeping with the words on the foundation tablets, the ceremony aimed to show that the building was of and for the people. The Duke of Gloucester made the dedication speech and the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Dr Howard Mowll gave the prayer: 'To the Glory of God, and as a lasting monument of all the members of the Australian Forces of the State of NSW, who served their King and country in the Great War, and especially in grateful remembrance of those who laid down their lives, we dedicate this ANZAC Memorial'.[10][2]

To familiarise the public with the symbolism of the monument and to mark its completion, in 1934 the Trustees published The Book of the Anzac Memorial in a limited edition. This volume both commemorated and explained the memorial. The December 1934 issue of Building magazine also focused on the ANZAC Memorial, devoted nine pages to explain its details and symbolism.[10][2]

All associations with offices in the ANZAC Memorial building helped members with their applications to the Repatriation Department and assistance with medical needs. Each office in the memorial had a counter where members could apply for assistance, a waiting lobby, and secretarial and general offices.[10][2]

By the mid 1930s the ex-servicemen's offices in the ANZAC Memorial were already overcrowded, and the situation became critical when veterans from World War II began accessing the building for services in the 1940s. The RSL gained permission to extend its rooms into the Assembly Hall in 1942 but its situation was not significantly improved until it moved to nearby Anzac House in College Street in 1957. The TB Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen also moved into Anzac House but returned to the ANZAC Memorial in 1980. The Limbless and Maimed Soldiers' Association stayed in the memorial through the whole period that its members survived.[10][2]

Australia was embroiled in World War II less than five years after the ANZAC Memorial opened. Attempts to physically make changes and add additional symbols to reflect this and later wars did not proceed due to difficulties envisaging how this might be achieved without compromising the design.[10][2]

Although the ANZAC Memorial experienced no significant structural changes, in the latter half of the twentieth century people did tend to assume that it was a memorial for all wars. The memorial also became a symbol of all wars in a negative way, particularly in the case of the Australian Government's support of the United States in Vietnam, which polarised the nation. In the prolonged civil protests about Australian involvement in that war – characterised by the moratorium marches of the late 1960s – the ANZAC Memorial became a rallying point. It was also the site of an anti-war sit-in in 1970 and the centre for a Ban the Bomb protest in 1983. In 1975 feminists inferred it was a symbol of male domination when they painted on it, "Women march for Liberation".[10][2]

In 1984 an amendment of the Anzac Memorial Building Act of 1923 legally acknowledged the meaning of the ANZAC Memorial that most people had already accepted when it authorised the building's re-dedication as the principal war memorial of NSW. Governor Sir James Rowland performed the ceremony on 30 November, fifty years and six days after the first dedication by the Duke of Gloucester. From that time, the ANZAC Memorial's stated purpose was to honour the men and women of NSW who served in all wars where Australia had been involved.[10][2]

In the same year a "museum" or exhibition space was established to inform the public both about the wars in which Australia has been involved and those who served in them. It was originally opened on the 50th Anniversary of the official opening of the memorial, on 18 November 1984. A bronze plaque marking the event was mounted on a wall in the Vestibule. A permanent photographic exhibition titled "Australians at War" opened during this month and became a great success with visiting school groups and tourists.[10][2]

A recent mark of respect to NSW service men and women was the 1995 addition of a Remembrance Flame to the Hall of Memory. The Trustees made space for this new symbol by removing the door to the Archives Room and commissioning the Australian Gas Light Company Limited (AGL) to install the burner which is currently lit 8 hours a day between 9 am and 5 pm.[10][2]

The ANZAC Memorial has been variously described as "a unique statement of architectural and sculptural unity", "the ultimate conception of the Art Deco style in this country" and "the epitome of Art Deco in Australia." It has become a site of increasing visitation in the 21st century, including a marked increase in the number of schools and other educational bodies. The ANZAC Memorial Building is "a lasting memorial", [an] "outstanding legacy" that continues to move present-day Australians to bow their heads 'in honoured memory of all those who have fought on the nation's behalf'.[10][2]

View of the top of the waterfall extension and oculus.

On 22 August 2016, work commenced on the $40 million enhancement of the Anzac Memorial. The extension was the “centrepiece of the State's Centenary of Anzac commemorations, marking the 100th anniversary of the ending of the First World War”.[14]

The major extension realised architect Bruce Dellit's original concept for the Memorial.[15] Premier Mike Baird said "by enhancing this memorial we are ensuring future generations can continue to honour those who fought for the freedoms we enjoy today". Construction was completed by Built and jointly funded by the NSW and Australian Governments.[16][2]

The upgrades included:

• A large water cascade feature on the southern side of the memorial, with new entrance and walkway.
• The Hall of Service: including “a major artwork by Fiona Hall featuring 1,701 soil samples from each NSW town, suburb and district given as the home address by First World War enlistees”.[14]
• The Oculus, which is centred above the Hall of Service with a view out to the Memorial exterior.

The extension was officially opened on 20 October 2018.[17]

As at 26 February 2010, following many years of major catch-up maintenance and repair works, the general condition of the Memorial in 2010 is very good. Water ingress has been a constant issue within the building since it opened in 1934. In 2009 this was resolved with modifications to the podium drainage and paving system.[2]

The archaeological potential of the site has not been formally assessed. Hyde Park was the site of Australia's first race course and cricket pitch. Recent scholarship suggests Hyde Park north was also the site of a "fighting ground" for staging combative trials, first by the Aboriginal people between their own clans, later by Aboriginal people in demonstrating their fighting prowess against the British.[18] Evidence associated with these uses as well as former park layouts may still exist within the park precinct, although it is likely to have been substantially disturbed by construction of the railway stations and tunnels as well as the memorial itself. The outlet to Busby's Bore is immediately to the east of the memorial within the broader site curtilage.[10][2]

The Anzac Memorial is remarkably intact, and contains a great deal of original fabric. This includes moveable items such as the wreath laid by the Duke of Gloucester.[2]

The memorial contains a number of moveable heritage items including the wreath, rail designed by Bruce Dellit. Two larger plaster models of the building and possibly some furniture within the office spaces.[2]

A ten-metre-long bronze relief, over the west door by Rayner Hoff.

The other 10 m (32.8 ft) long bronze relief, over the east door. These two sculptures illustrate the functions and activities of elements of the Australian Imperial Force overseas.[19]

• Building magazine. 1934.
• Building magazine. 1932.
• Building magazine. 1930.
• Building magazine. 1928.
• Building magazine. 1922.
• Act NO 27, 1923 (1923). Anzac Memorial (Building) Act.
• Ashton, Howard; others (1934). The Sculpture of Rayner Hoff.
• Bayer, Patricia, Art Deco Architecture: Design, Decoration and Detail from the Twenties and Thirties, Thames & Hudson, London, 1992
• Butler, Roger (1979). Raymond McGrath Prints.
• Dellit, C. Bruce (1930). Report Accompanying Designs for the Anzac Memorial Building in Architecture.
• Edwards, Deborah, This Vital Flesh: The Sculpture of Rayner Hoff and His School, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1999
• Foster, Stephen; Gartrell, Glenda; Spearritt, Peter; Varghese, Margaret (1984). History and Social Significance of the Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney.
• Hillier, Bevis; Escritt, Stephen. Art Deco Style.
• Jeans, Dennis (1983). The Making of the Anzac Memorial Heritage Conservation News Winter.
• GML (2012). Hyde Park Archaeological Management Plan.
• Government Archtiects Office NSW (2007). ANZAC Memorial, Hyde Park, Conservation Management Plan.
• Hedger, Michael, Public Sculpture in Australia, Craftsman House, Sydney, NSW, 1995
• Inglis, Kenneth Stanley (1998). Sacred Places: War Memorialsin the Australian Landscape. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
• Karskens, Grace (2009). The Colony, A History of Early Sydney.
• Legislative Council debate over amendment to the ANZAC Memorial Bill (19 September 1984). Hansard (NSW). pp. 1127–1133.
• Lindsay, Lionel; Dalley, W. B. (1932). Art in Australia.
• Murphy, Damien (2014). 80 years on, Anzac Memorial to get its water feature at last.
• Napier, S. Elliott (1934). The Book of the Anzac Memorial.
• Pembroke, Michael (2009). 'The Aspen Tree', in Trees of History & Romance.
• Stapleton, Maisey (2001). 'Sydney Art Deco: the architecture of Dellit and Sodersten' in M. Ferson and M. Nilsson (eds) Art Deco in Australia.
• Sturgeon, Graeme, The Development of Australian Sculpture: 1788 – 1975, Thames & Hudson, London, 1978
• Van Daele, Patrick and Roy Lumly, A Spirit of Progress: Art Deco Architecture in Australia, Craftsman House, Sydney, NSW, 1997

This Wikipedia article contains material from ANZAC Memorial, entry number 1822 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 14 October 2018.