The reopening of the main entrance of the Australian War Memorial. Photo: Australian War Memorial.
There’ll be a new part of the Australian War Memorial to explore this summer, and a computer-animated video, released this week, gives a foretaste.
Since 2021, the construction fences have gradually come down on a $550 million redevelopment of the Memorial, starting with an expanded and reshaped parade ground out the front, which reopened just in time for Anzac Day commemorations in April.
This week, the ‘Commemorative Entrance’ was reopened to the public, including the original entrance, stairs, and forecourt, which are visible by looking directly up Anzac Parade.
To mark the occasion, the Memorial also revealed a digital sneak-peek inside the main entrance and foyer, said to open this summer.
This will include “public spaces dedicated to telling the stories of recent conflicts and the Australians who served in them” in the form of galleries for the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
“There will be galleries that address the fact that Australians have been deployed in peacekeeping operations every single day since 1947,” Australian War Memorial Director director Matt Anderson said.
The main feature is the glass Oculus, Latin for ‘eye’, which was craned into place in July.
It’s said to be the inversion of the Memorial’s iconic green-coloured dome and takes the form of a large skylight with glass ‘petals’ set into a steel frame. Each petal, imported from Spain, weighs 350 kg.
From above, visitors will be able to look down into the foyer, while from below, visitors can glimpse the dome itself.
“The oculus is about maintaining a visual connection to the existing entrance and also bringing light into the space,” the designer from SC Studio, Doug Southwell, said.
A computer render of the new oculus at the southern entrance to the Australian War Memorial. Photo: Australian War Memorial.
Next on the construction list is Anzac Hall, which will provide an additional 4000 metres of gallery space thanks to a new two-storey building to house and display exhibitions and some of the larger technology objects currently locked away in the Memorial’s warehouse in Mitchell.
A “glazed link” will connect the new hall to the main building and contain “non-light sensitive large technology objects (including aircraft and armoured vehicles), a café/restaurant, and space to support the Memorial’s educational programs”.
The new Anzac Hall will open in 2026, and the broader project is scheduled for completion in 2028.
“We have assembled a world-leading collection of the stories, the artefacts, the objects that tell the story from Gallipoli to Afghanistan and more in one place,” Mr Anderson added.
The reopening comes as travel site Tripadvisor gives the Australian War Memorial its ‘Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best Award for 2024′, which places it in the top one per cent of Tripadvisor’s 1.6 million listings worldwide.
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