Australian War Memorial

“Designed as both a shrine and a museum, the War Memorial is the site of national ANZAC Day services, and houses a vast collection of relics, documents, art and media that tell the story of Australia’s experience in war and peacekeeping.”

Poppies on the Roll of Honour

Parliament House

Old Parliament House

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There are two ways to get to the War Memorial on the bus, the long way and the short way. We got on the bus that goes the long way. When we mentioned to the driver that we had missed the one that goes the short way, he said he’d make a special stop for us so we wouldn’t have to go the long way. So our bus trip only lasted about 5 minutes, and he dropped us in the middle of Anzac Parade with about 100 metres to walk to get to the Memorial. Gotta love those Canberra bus drivers!

Anzac Parade is a long and rather magnificent tree-lined avenue of red gravel, which forms the visual link between the parliamentary area on the southern side of the lake (top of picture) and the War Memorial on the northern side (bottom).

There are several ‘small’ memorials along
Anzac Parade, some of which we stopped
to admire.

Australian Army National Memorial

Royal Australian Air Force Memorial

Outside the War Memorial itself is a statue of Simpson and his donkey, commemorating a stretcher-bearer who saved the lives of many wounded men by using a donkey to transport them away from the fighting at Gallipoli in 1915.

A family of deadbeats were violating the statue by sitting their children on it and letting them pretend they were in a wild west show, reminding us that the world is full of idiots who have no understanding of history, and a visit to the War Memorial is just like a day at the beach to them.

However we quickly got over it, and for the second time in two years looked at the Memorial with great interest. It must be one of the greatest museums in the world, commemorating the men and women who served Australia in several wars, from the Boer War to Iraq. It’s interesting that Australia stopped entering wars automatically with the UK a long time ago, and now we just do whatever the USA wants.

Relics from France, World War I

Some of the Victoria Crosses in the Hall of Valour

The War Memorial has a large collection of warplanes, of which ‘G for George’ is the main attraction. For those who don’t know, G for George is a Lancaster Bomber flown by an Australian crew on ninety-nine missions over Germany in the Second World War. There are screens on the wall behind G for George, where every hour a movie is shown of an actual raid, accompanied by light and sound effects of flak, enemy planes and a bedlam of noise.

One of the guides here had been a crew member of a Lancaster bomber himself, so he was almost more
interesting than the movie, unlike most of the female attendants, who were very pleasant, but they all
seemed to be about twelve years old and didn’t quite know anything about WW2, or even about the wars
that Tony had won all over the Middle East.

Tony spent a lot of time talking to attendants of all ages and genders, one of whom directed us to where the Spitfire is, and then revealed he’s a drummer in a dance band. A long conversation ensued, and if Linda hadn’t eventually dragged Tony away by his hair, we never would have seen the Spitfire. Speaking of hair, the attendant / drummer had very interesting shiny black hair that didn’t seem to fit the rest of his head.

In the Hall of Memory, which houses the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier, there are some stunning stained glass windows depicting the various branches of Australia’s armed forces.

In front of the Hall of Memory is the Pool of Reflection, crowned by the Eternal Flame. To left and right, at mezzanine level, there are stone cloisters, where dark bronze panels of the Roll of Honour record the names of over 102,000 Australian servicemen and women who have died in wars since the late nineteenth century.

If you’re going to Canberra, the Australian War Memorial is a ‘must see’. (But try to avoid the cafeteria at lunch time.)

To visit the official Australian War Memorial website, click here > http://www.awm.gov.au/