The Anzac Memorial is a heritage-listed war memorial, museum and monument located in Hyde Park South near Liverpool Street in the CBD of Sydney, Australia.
The Art Deco monument was designed by C. Bruce Dellit, with the exterior adorned with monumental figural reliefs and sculptures by Rayner Hoff, and built from 1932 to 1934 by Kell & Rigby. This state-owned property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 23 April 2010.
The memorial is the focus of commemoration ceremonies on Anzac Day, Remembrance Day and other important occasions. It was built as a memorial to the Australian Imperial Force of World War I. Fund raising for a memorial began on 25 April 1916, the first anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landing at Anzac Cove for the Battle of Gallipoli. It was opened on 24 November 1934 by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester. In 2018, refurbishments and a major expansion were completed. The memorial was officially reopened by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
History
Aboriginal land
Material in rock shelters reveals that Aboriginal people inhabited the Sydney Harbour area from at least 25,000 years ago. The Gadigal, who formed part of the Darug nation, were the Aboriginal traditional owners of the inner Sydney area, upon which the Anzac Memorial stands. 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. It is remarkable that the State's most grand and monumental war memorial should be positioned on this historical site of indigenous combat. 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 Royal 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). 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. 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. According to Building magazine, most people agreed that Dellit's design for the ANZAC Memorial was the best in the competition.
alt=|thumb|View of the waterfall extension and [[Oculus (architecture)|oculus.]]
The major extension realised architect Bruce Dellit's original concept for the Memorial and added new underground exhibition and education spaces. 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. and officially opened on 20 October 2018.
In June 2020 the Centenary Extension was awarded the Sir John Sulman Medal, the highest award for public architecture in New South Wales. Later that year in November 2020 the project was also awarded the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture by the Australian Institute of Architects at the national awards.
Description
thumb|The [[Art Deco exterior of the building]]
The building is constructed of concrete, with an exterior cladding of pink granite, and consists of a massed square superstructure with typically Art Deco setbacks and buttresses, punctuated on each side by a large arched window of yellow stained glass, and crowned with a ziggurat-inspired stepped roof. It is positioned atop a cruciform pedestal within which are located administrative offices and a small museum. The interior is largely faced in white marble, and features a domed ceiling adorned with 120,000 gold stars – one for each of those men and women from New South Wales who served during World War I. Access to the main hall is provided via broad stairways on each side of the building's north–south axis, while ground-level doorways on the east and west sides offer entry to the lower section. The main focus of the interior is Rayner Hoff's monumental bronze sculpture of a deceased youth, representing a soldier, held aloft on his shield by a caryatid – three female figures, representing his mother, sister and wife. The male figure's nudity was considered shocking at the time of the monument's opening, and it is said to be the only such representation of a naked male form within any war memorial. Two other even more controversial figural sculptures designed by Hoff—one featuring a naked female figure—were never installed on the eastern and western faces of the structure as intended, partly as a result of opposition from high ranking representatives of the Catholic Church. The building's exterior is adorned with several bronze friezes, carved granite relief panels and twenty monumental stone figural sculptures symbolising military personnel, also by Hoff. Immediately to the north of the ANZAC Memorial is a large rectangular "Lake of Reflections" flanked by rows of poplars. The poplars, not native to Australia, symbolise the areas of France in which Australian troops fought. Original plans called for the construction of similar pools on each of the other sides of the building, but these were never built.
;The memorial setting
thumb|The memorial and surrounds
The ANZAC Memorial is located in Hyde Park South and is a principal physical focal point in the axis joining it and the Pool of Reflection with the Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park north. There are many prominent views of the memorial through Hyde Park South and the main axis is aligned with an avenue of fig trees, which accentuates the main path. The ziggurat form of ANZAC Memorial is also evident from Oxford Street for several blocks east of Whitlam Square. 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.]]
Heritage listing
thumb|The Anzac War Memorial during the 1938 Sesquicentenary Celebrations
As at 19 September 2011, The ANZAC Memorial, completed in 1934, is of historical significance to the State for its embodiment of the collective grief of the people of NSW at the loss of Australian servicemen and women since World War I. It is associated with the landing of Australian troops at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, since fundraising for the memorial was established on the first anniversary of the landing. It is also associated with returned servicemen and their organisations including the RSL, which lobbied for the erection of the monument and occupied offices within it. The ANZAC Memorial is of State aesthetic significance as a great work of public art which is arguably the finest expression of Art Deco monumentality in Australia. The result of an outstanding creative collaboration between architect Bruce Dellit and sculptor Rayner Hoff, it contains complex symbolic embellishments that reinforce and enhance the commemorative meanings of the building. Its landscape context in Hyde Park was purposefully designed for it by Dellit including the large Pool of Reflection lined by poplars. Its positioning on a major axis linked to the Archibald Fountain contributes significantly to the physical character of Hyde Park and the city of Sydney. The ANZAC Memorial is of State significance as the largest and most ambitious of the numerous war memorials constructed throughout NSW after the Great War. The memorial is also representative as NSW's contribution to the group of "national war memorials", whereby each state capital city developed its own major war memorial in the inter-war period. In this group the ANZAC Memorial is outstanding in its size, integrity and aesthetic appeal. Rayner Hoff's sculpture has been described as "a masterpiece of craftsmanship... romantic without being sentimental, austere without being severe" (Sturgeon). The ANZAC Memorial is also of State significance for the landscape purposefully designed for it by Dellit including a large reflection pool lined by poplars. The building is a prominent element in Hyde Park where it shares a principal axis with another major memorial to World War I, the Archibald Fountain. Its position contributes significantly to the physical character of Hyde Park and the city of Sydney.