AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL-CANBERRA

The walls contain the names of all Australian war dead. Poppies are placed by family and friends to commemorate important dates.



The imposing memorial, Tomb of the Unknown in center, memorial walls on each side and a museum in the vast space underneath.

Excerpted from my book OUR SUMMER IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND, Amazon.com


The Australian War Memorial, is located directly opposite from Parliament House. These two buildings face each other in a dramatic way. Politicians, from there exalted hilltop site, deliberating on decisions to go to war, need only to look out their window and across the lake at the imposing War Memorial, to be reminded of the consequences. I have visited “Tombs of the Unknown Soldier” in many countries… France, Great Britain, United States, Italy, Turkey and so on. The Australian War Memorial surpasses them all, not only in its respect for the hardships of those who served — particularly in the two World Wars of the last century— but also in the direct, realistic and unadorned manner in which the story of the combatant is told. As in other Tombs of the Unknown, Australia’s is also rendered tastefully and with dignity.

However, unlike the Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington Cemetery, this memorial is without an interposing honor guard, and is covered from the elements while still remaining open, allowing anyone to approach and pay their respects. Also, and very wisely, the Australian Tomb contains the remains of only one serviceman, a soldier from the First World War, representing every unknown serviceman from all of Australia’s conflicts. The gravesite is symbolic, not specific. Unlike the United States, which has an Unknown Soldier gravesite for WWI, WWII, and Korea, resulting in an ongoing controversial opening of the graves, to subject the remains to modern DNA identification analysis. The Australian example is dignified, complete, and without political sentiment.

What further distinguishes the Australian War Memorial is the amazing museum located beneath the building. It’s a vast space, even containing twin engine bombers from
WWII, and realistic displays of a soldier’s life, from Australia’s first overseas encounter in the Boer war, through their participation in Vietnam. It is not simply a collection of captured enemy equipment, but more a paean to the serviceman’s life in combat, told through hundreds of photographs and large dioramas. It doesn’t glorify. It doesn’t put flag rank officers on pedestals. It does honor genuine heroism. You leave shaking your head at what men, and in several examples, women, endured. Also, you better understand the Australian concept of “mateship”, and everyone having a “fair go.” Of course, men from other nations also bond together to mutually endure the hardships of prolonged combat, but it comes through so forcefully in the ANZAC photographs, reinforcing the statement that, at Gallipoli, the Australian nation was born.

By combining their tomb of the unknown soldier with a memorial museum, and in such a dignified, respectufl and somber fashion, the Australians have got it right, and set an example for others, including the United States.

CANBERRA: CHICAGO LANDSCAPER DESIGNED NEW CAPITAL

Parliment Building. Citizens can walk over the building using stairs on either side. Note people on top of the building. Aussies like the idea that they have the only Parliment in the world where the citizens can "walk all over their politicians."




Lake Griffen. City at the left and governmenmt building across the lake to the right.


Excerpted from my book OUR SUMMER IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND amazon.com

A little history. When Australia federated in 1901, there was a raging debate between
Sydney and Melbourne as to which city should be the new nation’s capital. Being
unsolvable, it was decided to find a new location within the state of New South Wales, provided it was no closer than 100 miles to Sidney. Those from Melbourne were determined to prevent Sydneysiders from profiting from the new capital, and in those days, 100 miles (or about 160 km) was sufficient distance to deny any useful commercial connection.

A committee was formed to recommend a location, and after a long search of about
40 sites, the small settlement of Canberra was chosen, and almost 925 surrounding square miles were set aside for what is now known as the Australian Capital Territory. By the way, in Aussie the pronunciation is “kain-bruh,” an offshoot of an aboriginal word fittingly meaning “meeting place.”

In 1909, an international competition was conducted to select a designer for the new
city, and from 137 entries, Chicago landscape architect, Walter Burley Griffin, who had never been to Australia, was awarded the contract. What an opportunity! A totally blank canvas upon which to design a nation’s capital — and the resulting Canberra is widely regarded as the most successfully planned city in the world. The main features of Griffin’s plan were an artificially created lake, a federal triangle, (not quite similar to L’Enfant’s design for Washington D.C., but capitalizing on the general idea) broad avenues and many parks, with residential and commercial space opposite the triangle of buildings on the
other side of the lake.

Griffin arrived in 1913, but quit in 1920, over disagreements in design changes. The
work progressed slowly thereafter, interrupted by two World Wars and the Depression, but in 1927, a temporary Parliament building was finally completed, and the government moved from Melbourne. In 1963, Lake Burley Griffin was finally finished, and in 1988, almost sixty years from the opening of its temporary building, the new parliament building was opened, essentially completing Griffin’s plans. Despite Australian criticism of Canberra being provincial, boring, and nothing but a politician’s town, I believe Griffin succeeded admirably.