Anzac War Memorial

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Detail of monumental sculptures and reliefs

Rayner Hoff's Sacrifice inside the memorial

The ANZAC War Memorial is Sydney's main commemorative military monument.

Designed by C. Bruce Dellit, completed in 1934 and adorned with monumental figural reliefs and sculptures by Rayner Hoff it is arguably the finest Art Deco public building in Australia.

The memorial is located at the southern extremity of Hyde Park on the eastern edge of Sydney's central business district, and it is the focus of commemoration ceremonies on ANZAC Day, Armistice Day and other important occasions.

The building is constructed of concrete, with an exterior cladding of pink granite, and consists of a massed square superstructure with typically Art Deco set-backs 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 New South Wales' military volunteers during World War 1. 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 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 local Catholic Church representatives.

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 term ANZAC in the memorial's name is an acyronym for "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps", which was the original name for the combined corps of Australian and New Zealand troops who fought in World War I.

Image:The Cost Of Victory Daylight by Lucanos.jpg|The Memorial, as seen across the "Lake Of Reflections", by day. Image:The Cost Of Victory by Lucanos.jpg|The Memorial, as seen across the "Lake Of Reflections", by night.

External links

• [ANZAC War Memorial] - Description of the memorial from the City of Sydney website. (Last accessed Oct 29, 2005)
• [ANZAC Memorial] - A site that features a good aerial photograph of the memorial and its immediate surrounds.
• [Peace Offering that Shocked the Church] - A newspaper article that discusses the controversy surrounding the never-installed sculptures Rayner Hoff designed for the ANZAC Memorial.

References

• Bayer, Patricia, Art Deco Architecture: Design, Decoration and Detail fro the Twenties and Thirties, Thames & Hudson, London, 1992

• Edwards, Deborah, This Vital Flesh: The Sculpture of Rayner Hoff and His School, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1999

• Hedger, Michael, Public Sculpture in Australia, Craftsman House, Sydney, NSW, 1995

• Inglis, K.S., Sacred Places: War Memorials in the Austrailan Landscape, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1998

• Sturgeon, Graeme, The Develpoment of Austrailan Sculpture: 1788 - 1975, Thames & Hudson, London, 1978

• Van Daele, Patrick and Roy Lumly, A Spirit of Progress: Art Deco Architecture in Australia, Craftsman House, Sydney, NSW, 1997

See also

• Australian War Memorial - Australia's national war memorial and museum.
• Shrine of Remembrance - Melbourne's main war memorial.
• Shrine of Remembrance - Brisbane's main war memorial.

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