Queenstown, New Zealand
Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced plans to build an Australian Memorial in Wellington, New Zealand, to be completed in time for the Centenary of Anzac on 25 April 2015.
The Australian Memorial will be located in Wellington in the National War Memorial precinct, a park being developed by the New Zealand Government as the centrepiece of New Zealand‘s Centenary of Anzac commemorations in 2015.
The memorial will commemorate the shared efforts of both countries in both war and peace, and will complement the Australia-New Zealand Memorial opened on Canberra's Anzac Parade in 2001.
Australia and New Zealand share an extraordinary relationship - one born on the bloody battlefields of Gallipoli and in the trenches of France and Belgium during the First World War.
Australia and New Zealand have fought alongside each other in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in almost all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations, from the Boer War through to modern conflicts in Afghanistan.
And our shared and continuing Anzac story has been strengthened by the modern social, economic, cultural and sporting links of today.
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Centenary of Anzac, The Hon Warren Snowdon, recently approved the Memorial design submitted by Australian architectural firm Tonkin Zulaikha Greer.
It will comprise of 15 columns made of rugged Australian red sandstone, symbolic of the Australian ‘red centre'. The memorial itself will be surrounded by eucalypt trees to represent the Australian landscape.
Interpretative material on the columns will address the shared Anzac wartime experience, but the memorial will also commemorate our shared experience of indigenous history, settlement, immigration, culture and other links.
Amongst the columns is a central plinth, providing a focus for commemorative ceremonies.
The Australian Government has funded the $5 million cost of the memorial.
The memorial will be completed in time for the Centenary of Anzac on 25 April 2015.
High resolution architect's impressions of the images are available at www.dva.gov.au/media.