Remembrance Day

Update; A very Happy Birthday to Lee

Remembrance Day November 11th 2006

Ariel view of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance, looking toward
the city centre

Front view of the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance.

This post has been written about the Melbourne Shrine as it was the place I learned about our wartime involvement as a youngster growing up in suburban Melbourne

Melbourne’s most recognizable landmark, the Shrine of Remembrance, is Victoria’s memorial to the service & sacrifice of its men & women in times of conflict. This magnificent & significant monument, one of the largest war memorials in the world, commands views of the city & surrounds from the upper balconies.

It was built between July 1928 and November 1934 in remembrance of those 114 000 men and women of Victoria who served, and those who died, in the Great War of 1914-1918.

The Shrine and its landscape are a striking and moving tribute to those who fought in both world wars and subsequent conflicts. It was designed by Hudson and Wardrop

A broad ceremonial approach lined with Bhutan cypress climbs the slope to a large forecourt in the shape of a cross. The symmetrical layout of paths radiating from the Shrine into the surrounding landscape is balanced by trees arranged informally in the spacious lawns.

The trees are a mixture of Australian and exotic species, evergreen and deciduous. Most carry commemorative plaques representing units of the Army, Airforce, Navy, Women’s Services, and Commonwealth and Allied countries.

The first such memorial tree was a beech from France, planted in soil from the trenches of Verdun to commemorate that battle. In 1932 a seedling was planted that had been propagated from a cone gathered at Gallipoli. It came from the lone pine that gave the battleground its name, and was dedicated to the 24th Battalion.

The Gallipoli Memorial stands in the shade of the lone pine. The nearby Garden of Appreciation, planted with Flanders poppies on Remembrance Day, marks the main entrance from Birdwood Avenue into the Reserve.

At eleven AM on the eleventh day of the eleventh month a shaft of light from a skylight high in the shrine hits an altar with a wreath upon it, as a trumpet sounds the Last Post, and the Nation comes to a halt for two minutes of silence and remembrance.

The interior of Melbourne's Shrine is just as spectacular as the outside.

We are fortunate in that we share this day with all the countries that
made up the Allied Forces... Lest We Forget.