ANZAC Memorial, Brisbane
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A war memorial in the heart of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It’s at ANZAC Square and its centrepiece is a comparatively modest memorial monument and underneath this are a few exhibition spaces (called “galleries” here), which are well worth a look. In addition there are several groups of sculptures dotted around the Square.
More background info: in general see under the background section for the ANZAC Memorial in Sydney.
Just as with that larger and better-known equivalent in New South Wales, initial ideas for a war memorial for Queensland in Brisbane were already floated in 1916, i.e. while WW1 was still raging. The idea for a memorial was triggered mainly by the disastrous military campaign in Gallipoli in 1915, which cost so many Australians and New Zealanders their lives, and in the end was all for nothing.
In 1920 a committee for developing such an ANZAC memorial here was formed, the location was more or less determined by 1926 and the year after that an architectural competition to decide on a design was held. Construction of the winning design was begun in 1929 and it was hoped that the memorial could be inaugurated on ANZAC Day 1930 (25 April), but that deadline was missed by a month. The unveiling ceremony took place on 24 May 1930. Still, this made it the first ANZAC memorial to be opened in Australia, beating Sydney’s equivalent by over four years.
During the construction of the monument in Brisbane there was a deadly accident, when an excavating plough struck a worker in the stomach, after which construction was temporarily halted.
In the years after the memorial’s opening, the adjacent ANZAC Square became the place for additional memorial sculptures to be erected, beginning with the Women’s Memorial in 1932, followed by the one for the Boer War. Over the years and decades more and more such works of memorial art were added, including monuments for WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and the latest addition was the sculpture group dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait servicemen and women, which was unveiled as late as 2022.
Similarly, the main monument, originally only a WW1 memorial, later also commemorated those Queenslanders who lost their lives in other conflicts too, and eventually it was dedicated to all servicemen and women, including those who have served in modern-day peacekeeping missions around the world.
A ‘restoration and enhancement project’ was implemented in more recent years and completed in 2019. Presumably it was also then that the interactive new hi-tech elements in the galleries were added (see below).
What there is to see: The monument as such is a significantly smaller, more modest affair than its much bigger and more pompous Sydney counterpart. The Brisbane ANZAC Memorial is a mausoleum-like sandstone structure topped by a kind of rotunda on columns. There are several engravings on it, in particular inside the ring topping the rotunda where the word ANZAC as well as various place names of WW1 relevance can be found. In the centre of the floor of the rotunda is an eternal flame, though when I was there it did not seem to be burning. Maybe it does so only on special days …
Grand steps lead down to ANZAC Square, which lies about 15 feet (5m) lower than street level at Ann St. From Adelaide St, however, there is also a level access to the Square.
Inside the memorial there are several spaces featuring more specific memorials as well as exhibition galleries. The oldest part is the “WW1 Crypt”, a long corridor with a series of niches on ether side that are filled with memorials to specific regiments, battalions and the like, often in typical traditional WW1-memorial style. But there are also numerous smaller and more individual plaques. Also already here are a couple of interactive touchscreens providing more details about the various plaques/memorials as well as selected personal stories.
More such features are to be found in the side halls that branch off the central corridor and contain two thematic galleries. The first one is the “World War II Gallery”. The walls here are lined with yet more traditional plaques, including a series dedicated to the crews of particular naval vessels lost at sea during the war. There’s also a plaque dedicated to the Polish servicemen who fought on the Allied side in Europe and Northern Africa.
The main feature in this gallery, however, is a large set of horizontally arranged interactive touchscreens, or ‘media tables’. These provide timelines, specifics about Brisbane during the war, details of battles as well as personal stories. I’m not normally much of a fan of over-reliance on interactive screens, but in this case I must say that I was truly impressed. The content is really well organized and presented. I normally get bored with touchscreens pretty quickly – but not here. Although I have to admit that I still didn’t explore everything there would have been (it can be overwhelming). There is also some coverage of the story of the Australian POWs who were forced to work on the infamous Thailand-Burma “Death Railway”. This is certainly the darkest aspect here.
Another element in this gallery is a “full-height projection wall” on which numerous images of Queenslanders involved in the war can be seen (these images are drawn from the State Library of Queensland collection).
The other main exhibition hall is the “Post-World War II Gallery”. Again, the main feature here are those touchscreens providing interactively explorable content, covering wars/conflicts and peacekeeping missions since WWII around the world that Australians, especially Queenslanders, have been involved in. Once again there’s a timeline as well as personal stories. What intrigued me the most here was the subsection about INTERFET – the International Force in East Timor. It was the biggest deployment of Australian military since WWII and was instrumental in ending the brutal occupation of East Timor by Indonesia and safeguarding the path towards Timorese independence.
As you exit the memorial’s interior you pass a wall covered with origami paper cranes, a classic peace symbol that originated in Japan (cf. Hiroshima Peace Park). On another wall, visitors are invited to leave post-it notes with their answers to the general question “How do you remember?”.
Back outside on ANZAC Square you can take a look at the various memorial sculptures and statues dotted around. These represent, inter alia, the Boer Wars, WWII and the Vietnam War. The newest addition is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial. Rather than providing verbal descriptions, I’ll point you in the direction of the photo gallery below!
All in all, I must say that this ANCAZ Memorial in Brisbane impressed me a lot more than its much larger counterpart in Sydney. In contrast to the latter it’s much less pompous and grand and somewhat more subtle. What really makes the difference, though, is the quality of the very modern thematic galleries inside, especially the WWII and post-WWII galleries. These feature some of the best use of interactive touchscreen commodification I have ever encountered anywhere. (And I’m hard to convince when it comes to screens in exhibitions, so this is really saying something!)
For anybody with at least some interest in the subject of modern history of human conflict – from a particularly Australian/Queenslander perspective – this is a must-see when in Brisbane.
Location: at 285 Ann Street in the CBD (Central Business District) of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Google Maps locator: [-27.4663, 153.0265]
Access and costs: easy to get to, free.
Details: Getting to this site really couldn’t be easier – it’s right opposite the “Central” train station on the northern end of Brisbane's CBD, within easy walking distance from any city centre location – from further away, using the train station is the most convenient, but there are also several bus lines going along Ann Street (including free inner-city lines).
Opening times: The square and the main memorial’s exterior are freely accessible at all times. The galleries are open at the following times: Sunday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Saturdays and on public holiday, except for ANZAC Day (25 April) when they’re open from as early as 5:30 a.m. and close at 3 p.m.
Admission is free.
Time required: I spent about 40 minutes at this site, but I’m sure that if you want to explore everything on the interactive touchscreens you will need quite a bit longer.
Combinations with other dark destinations: see under Brisbane.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: see under Brisbane.
