Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson under the Oculus. “Canberrans should be proud. Australians should be proud.” Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The Australian War Memorial won’t be asking for money to complete its massive redevelopment, saying the contractors will need to finish it within the current $550 million funding envelope.
AWM Director Matt Anderson said the memorial received an extra $50 million in 2021-22 when construction costs were going through the roof, but once the contracts were signed, risk transfer clauses meant it was up to the builder to stay on budget.
“I don’t expect to get any more money,” he told Region. “I’m not asking for any more money.
“I will need some more money over time to run the place, but it’s a different proposition because I’ve gone from 9500 sqm of gallery space to 15,000 sqm of gallery space.”
Mr Anderson was speaking at a tourism industry walk-through of the new and recently opened Southern Entrance last week, and ahead of the installation next month of some of the memorial’s biggest items in its collection in the Anzac Hall and Atrium spaces.
He believed the memorial and the community had put the row over the redevelopment and its cost behind them, now that the vision was becoming a reality.
The level of scrutiny the project received was perfectly fine in a democracy where there were always going to be alternative views of every dollar spent, he said.
He explained how he met a Reid couple when the forecourt was opened, one of whom said he had been critical of the cost. Yet when he saw what was being achieved, he said he was wrong about the project.
Mr Anderson said he had told him it was one of the nation’s great spaces in Canberra.
“We built this to create the space to honour our veterans and create the space to tell their stories,” he said
“It’s a standard that is world class. Canberrans should be proud. Australians should be proud of not only what we’ve achieved but who we’ve achieved it with.
“There’s always going to be alternative views on anything, but I think that most people now can see it and understand it.”
The Southern Entrance, with its featured Oculus, also includes a gift shop, and a 250-seat theatre and a dining and conference room that can seat 190, with which the memorial hopes to attract more events, both corporate and community, as part of supporting Canberra tourism in general.
Also completed is the Bean Building and Research Centre, allowing the memorial’s staff and volunteers to move back in and return it to a high level of service to visitors.
“We’re a memorial, we’re a museum, and we’re an archive, allowing visitors to the memorial to engage with the archives, the collections, the diaries, the battalion histories and the records and those sorts of things so that people can leave with a much greater understanding,” Mr Anderson said.
The third package of works still underway is Anzac Hall and the Atrium, which joins the main building to Anzac Hall, where a great many large objects will be displayed.
In the Atrium, the F-111 fighter bomber that flew photo reconnaissance over Timor, a Blackhawk helicopter and the bridge of HMAS Brisbane, which served from Vietnam through to the Persian Gulf, will be displayed.
Next month, objects such as F-18 warplanes and battle-damaged Bushmasters will be dropped into the Anzac Hall space, and the building will be constructed around them. It will open in early 2026.
“By this time next year, we’ll be telling the stories of Afghanistan, our longest war, Iraq, the Gulf, and 63 peacekeeping missions, and we’ll be telling it through stories and we’ll be telling it through objects, and it’s a remarkable achievement,” Mr Anderson said.
The fourth and final package of works is the reorganisation of the existing galleries.
Mr Anderson said the construction project had literally deep connections with veterans.
He said some veterans working on the Southern Entrance excavations let mates still serving in the commando regiment in Sydney know about the project.
“They drove down from Sydney, and they got their challenge coins [presented by unit commanders in recognition of special achievement] of both the regiment and also each of the companies, and they wanted them in the foundations of the memorial,” he said.
“So we wired those to the steel reinforcement before we poured the concrete.”
Mr Anderson said that indicated to him that the memorial was on the right track and doing it for the right reasons.
“Veterans and their families want to be associated with this when they want to have to leave their mark in the foundations of the building,” he said.
“You realise that this is for them and that they were very keen to be associated with it and forever.”
The memorial remains on schedule to complete its redevelopment in 2028.
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