Australian War Memorial, Canberra

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Basically, it is a war museum. This museum is large and well organised. The architectural of the whole compound are well done. The landscape continues with the Anzac Parade. It showcases the few memories like Vietnam War Memorial & Korean War Memorial. This is a must visit place in Canberra.

Open daily 10am-5pm.

Please check our their official website more detail information...

For foreigners the most interesting thing at the Australian War Memorial is to learn in how surprisingly many wars Australia has been involved and that for this reason it is no wonder that more than 100,000 Australian soldiers have been killed.

I am not very interested in warbirds, tanks and all the technology, so I did not study those highly praised exhibits in much detail. But I know that the Memorial is a great site for guys with more interest in this special field.

When I was there at the end of 2005 they had a special exhibition about Art & War, with lots of paintings about Austrealia, Britain and Canada in the Second World War. This was absolutely fascinating, and I spent hours there.

The Memorial uses film, sound, light and modern technology to depict the Australian experience of war. In the rather new ANZAC Hall you can find relics of the three Japanese midget submarines that attacked Sydney Harbour in 1942 as well as Lancaster Bomber G for George. The Bradbury Aircraft Hall tells the story of Australians at war in the Pacific from 1941 to 1945 by using so-called object-theatre.

Open daily (except Christmas Day) from 10am to 5pm.

Free guided tours (about 90 mins) available - but you can walk around at your pace and leisure as you please. If you have questions you can ask the friendly guides who are positioned in all halls and rooms.

They also have a research centre. This is open from 10am to 4.50pm on weekdays and 1pm to 4pm on Saturdays.

The Discovery Room is specially designed for children of all ages, open daily from 11am to 4.30pm.

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THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL................
It would be a shame if you missed out on the “Hall of Memory.”
This magnificent building can be found at the end of the “Pool of Reflection.”

Inside on the walls are beautiful Mosaics and the Stained glassed windows are beautiful. These were designed by an Australian artist, Napier Walter.

The Mosaics were completed in 1958, and consist of over 6 million tesserae imported from Italy. There is a symbolic meaning attached to each element of the design.
The stunning mosaic in the dome, is divided into 7 segments, representing Australia’s 7 pointed federal star.

The open hands symbolize the earth giving up the souls of the dead, who rise in the form of winged sarcopahagi towards the sun, the symbol of eternal life. The circular cornice incorporates such Australian motifs as wattle leaves and black swans, and an unbroken gold chain, symbolizing continuity.

The stained glass windows have meaning too. Each of the 15 panels in the three stained glass windows portrays an Australian in the uniform and equipment of WW1.

The south window depicts PERSONAL QUALITIES

The west window depicts SOCIAL QUALITIES

The east window depicts FIGHTING QUALITIES

This hall is magnificent, a place to stand and admire, and to reflect.

Please remember to be quiet, and to keep children under control. You are allowed to take photos.

ANZAC HALL, another fantastic exhibition showcasing large objects from the war years and using sound and light to tell compelling stories of Australia’s servicemen and women.
A lot is a permanent exhibition..... showcasing the Great war in the air, the stories of military flight and aerial combat during the First World War.

There is a stunning re-creation of a night operation over Berlin in 1943, featuring the famous Lancaster bomber "G for George". This exhibition, called "Striking by night," tells of the exploits and experiences of the people, from both sides, who lived through the bombing offensive.

Of particular interest is the famous midget submarine, assembled from sections of two of the three submarines that raided Sydney in 1942, this area also had an excellent sound and light show.

Just a little bit about the Sub................and how lucky Sydney and Australia was..............there could have been a very different outcome.

The remains were only discovered in 2006, by some divers off Sydney's northern beaches.

On the night of 31 May 1942 three Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney harbour. One became entangled in the boom net across the harbour, and her occupants blew her up. A second entered the harbour and fired torpedoes at the cruiser USS Chicago. They missed the Chicago but one hit the barracks ship HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21.
This midget submarine disappeared, its fate a complete mystery.
A third midget submarine also entered the harbour but was destroyed by depth-charges before it had fired any torpedoes.

The submarine in the Memorial's collection is a composite of two that entered the harbour.

A MUST VISIT IN THE WAR MEMORIAL

ENTRY to the War Memorial is FREE, but please give a donation to keep it running,

IT IS A WORLD CLASS MUSEUM

Open 10 -5 pm Daily

I never knew the man, only his wife and his son. At the age of 35 he found himself in the god forsaken mud that was the battlefield at Ypres. He had travelled from South Australia and married Bathia and they lived at Wilberforce to the west of Sydney on a farm.
By all accounts it was a happy existence until the war intervened. On the way over he had written home on the leaves from pussy willow trees. Echoes from the past that resonate still from a shelf in my study room. Heart rending epithets such as "To Bessie from W. My thoughts are always of you and Tom"; "There are some nice places but none so nice as home"; "To Bessie from W. far across the sea"; "From A55 to Kelmont, where would I rather be?". I find it a bit gut-wrenching reading them now.
Thus it was that these are the last pieces of tangible evidence of his existence. On the 4th October, 1917, along with many others, he was blown to smithereens by shellfire defending a country halfway round the world that he probably hardly knew existed. Two thirds who died did so by shellfire in that conflict........and for what? To placate a few male egos? Such were the times. And what have we learnt from them?
My father, his son, also joined the services and served in the Second World War in New Guinea and stayed in the R.A.A.F. till his retirement. I served for one year in my youth, falling short of the standard required for an armament fitter and luckily getting out. My sons are anti war, no doubt influenced to some degree by their father.
As one gets older one's roots seem to take on a significance not apparent in one's younger days and so it was that I made a pilgrimage to the War Memorial basement level to find out where my grandfather might be commemorated. It turns out there's a plaque on the Menin Gate at the town of Ieper (formerly Ypres) in Belgium. It was a teary-eyed moment for me to find that out and the rest of my time in the War Memorial I seemed to be burdened with that information, unable to take in some of the exhibits as I might have.
It ultimately led me to going to Ypres (see Brugge pages) and seeing and learning things that were appalling. May we live in peace.

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Named in honour of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), Anzac Parade is a wide boulevard that sweeps up from the lake shoreline to the entrance of the Australian War Memorial at the foot of Mount Ainslie.

Flanked by Eucalypts (Australian) with boxed Hebe (NZ) shrubs running up the central reservation, Anzac Parade is the main thoroughfare for ceremonial occasions, including the annual Anzac Parade on 25 April.

In the shade of the Eucalypts, memorials to fallen soldiers and campaigns are to be found both sides of the parade. The memorials commemorate specific campaigns (Kemal Ataturk - Gallipoli and WWI: Hellenic - Greek campaign of WWII: Korea: Vietnam) along with those for the Army, Service Nurses, Air Force etc...). Most, but not all, of the sculptures date from the 1980s.

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Putting it quite simply, the Australian War Memorial is extraordinary. Half memorial, half museum, it appeases my personal concern that war memorials can sometimes fall between two stools and glorify rather than commemorate war and its fallen soldiers.

It sits proudly at the top of the wide ceremonial avenue, Anzac Parade, with a sweeping uninterrupted view of Parliament (new and old) in the distance on the other side of Lake Burley Griffin.

The museum contains selections from the vast National Collection of relics, official and private records, art, photographs, film, and sound are employed to relate the story of a young nation's experience in world wars, regional conflicts, and international peacekeeping. The story begins at the time sailing ships first brought European settlers, convicts, and military from England in 1789 and extends to the present. The scaled models of various battles over a period of time are some of the best of their genre I have ever seen.

It's also a tribute to the 100,000+ Australian men and women who have lost their lives in serving their country. 'A central commemorative area surrounded by arched alcoves houses the names of the fallen on the bronze panels of the Roll of Honour. At the head of the Pool of Reflection, beyond the Flame of Remembrance, stands the towering Hall of Memory, with its interior wall and high dome clad in a six-million-piece mosaic. Inside lies the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier, an official war grave and national shrine.'

The impetus for the creation of the Memorial was the WWI and the terrible losses Australia suffered (the highest ratio of deaths against population of all the countries involved). Ironically, the building was not completed by the time Australia entered WWII and the charter needed to be extended to include WWII victims, and then in the 1950s to include all wars. The problem of extending the brief to include all wars and necessary displays etc was not solved until 1971, when two new wings were built to display relics and artefacts.

Now, in addition the original memorial and the display wings, there's the Sculpture Gardens and a large gallery completed in 2001.

The Memorial is open every day except Christmas Day, 10am - 5pm.
Entry is free.

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A visit to this outstanding memorial is not just an educational experience but a lasting lesson for all- that WAR is evil and PEACE must be preserved and defended even by our precious lives!

At least those were the things that stuck to my family as we view the awful sacrifices made since time past by our men and women in the military and defense forces here and abroad to defend democracy! The peacekeeping that Aussies do overseas particularly in troubled places are just commendable. We do need this MEMORIAL to remember why, what, and how people do love PEACE and abhor WAR!

The irony is we need to shed precious lives, most of the time use VIOLENCE to justify preserving PEACE.As much as possible I wish Australia will thoroughly examine which nations are deserving of its help and support and not gamble with innocent lives!

I hope generations to come will learn this valuable lesson about WAR and PEACE!

The photos will speak for themselves as we browse through the exhibits! You need at least half a day to see everything!Admission is FREE!