Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance

The Shrine of Remembrance (generally just called The Shrine) is Melbourne’s War Memorial. It was built to honour the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I, However, it now functions as a memorial to all Australians who have served in any war. It is a site of annual observances for Anzac Day (25 April) and Remembrance Day (11 November). It is one of the largest war memorials in Australia and one of the few that you can actually enter.

Jill and I spent a few hours there on Tuesday after having a delightful lunch at the Observatory Cafe across the the road and near the entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Construction of the Shrine began in 1927 with a final dedication ceremony being held in 1934. Around 300,000 people attended the dedication ceremony – approximately one third of Melbourne’s population at the time.

The Shrine originally had a reflecting pool in front of its north face. It was converted into a forecourt after WW2 when an element commemorating the Australian war dead of the world’s second great conflict was added. In February 1954, Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning British monarch to visit Australia and it was during this visit that she dedicated the Shrine’s Second World War Memorial Forecourt on 28 February. Her dedication is on display in one of the parchment books in the corridor around the sanctuary.

The design of the Shrine is based on the ancient Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) and the Parthenon in Athens. It is a structure in a square plan roofed by a stepped pyramid and entered on the north and south through classical porticos, each with eight Doric columns supporting a pediment containing sculpture in high relief.

Inside the Shrine is the Sanctuary, a high vaulted space that is entered through four tall entrance ways. In the centre is a marble stone, sunk below the floor level so that visitors have to bow their heads in order to read the inscription on it: GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN.

The Stone is aligned with an aperture in the roof of the Sanctuary so that a ray of sunlight falls on it exactly at 11 am. on 11 November each year – the hour and day of the signing of the Armistice which ended World War I.

The Sanctuary is surrounded by a passage way, along which are forty-two bronze cabinets containing hand-written, illuminated Books of Remembrance with the names of every Victorian who enlisted for active service with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) or Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force in World War I or died in camp prior to embarkation.

Beneath the Sanctuary is the Crypt containing a bronze statue of a father and son. These represent the two generations who served in the two world wars. Around the walls are panels listing every unit of the AIF, down to battalion and regiment, along with the colours of their shoulder patch. The Crypt is hung with the standards of various battalions and regiments, listing their battle honours. My grandfather served in the 57th Battalion.

Visitors now enter the Shrine through the Entrance Courtyard where “Lest We Forget” is inscribed on one wall and a quote from former Governor-General Sir William Deane on the other. A gallery of Medals covers a 40-meter-long wall displaying around 4,000 medals, each symbolically representing 100 Victorians who have served in war and peacekeeping operations.

The outdoor Balcony provides unique perspectives of the Shrine and the more than 250 memorial trees and features of the 13-hectare Shrine Reserve. Panoramic views of the Melbourne CBD highlight the Shrine’s prominent position and significance to all visitors.

In 2012 the Victorian Government announced that $22.5 million would be allocated to redevelop the Shrine’s undercroft and extend it to the south. The new exhibition space and auditorium, known as the ‘Galleries of Remembrance’, was opened on Remembrance Day in 2014. Although the Shrine is a memorial rather than a museum, these former foundations have become a space where small exhibitions are held.

Two permanent items on display are a lifeboat used at the landing at Gallipoli and a flag recovered from the Prisoner of War Camp at Changi in Singapore where many service men suffered and died. These are two of the more significant events in Australia’s military history.

Back to our visit, we really wanted to see three of the current temporary exhibitions.

One was a display of the was in which food is provided in the field. After all, an army does ‘March on its Stomach’.

This display honours the work of the Catering Corps and unveils the fascinating science and innovation behind military meals. It shows how troops have eaten —from the Boer War to Afghanistan and showcases the skill and adaptability of Defence chefs. Whether cooking in combat zones or delivering fine dining for diplomats, these chefs embody resilience and creativity.

The display of ration packs reminded me of the meals that we occasionally ate while on operations in Vietnam.

Another display was about the science of camouflage. It was interesting to see how colours and patterns provide clever tricks of deception. The were displayed on camouflage uniforms, historical objects, and rotating artworks by well-known artists. Camouflage aims to create a world where nothing is quite as it seems. This display  reminded about the joke where a Sergeant berates a soldier, saying “I didn’t see you at camouflage training this morning” To which the soldier replies “Thank you, Sergeant”.

This year marks the end of WW2 and a special exhibition called The Eucalypts of Hodogaya showed the remarkable story of a little known story of post-war reconciliation and remembrance through a Commonwealth War Cemetery in Japan.

Nestled among cherry blossoms and Japanese pines on the outskirts of Yokohama, Hodogaya, Japan, lies a beautiful war cemetery — the final resting place for over 1,500 Commonwealth service personnel. Designed and built by Melbourne’s Anzac Agency—now the Office of Australian War Graves—the Yokohama Commonwealth War Cemetery is considered one of the most exceptional examples of funereal landscape architecture ever created.

This exhibition shows how Australian and Japanese architects, gardeners, and builders overcame cultural divides after the Second World War to collaborate on a site that blends Eastern and Western traditions in a garden of peace.

I’m often surprised at how some things come together. I clicked on a random link to see the biography of one of the buried Australian soldiers to find that he was one of three brothers who died in WW2 and each are buried in different cemeteries around the world. A commemoration plaque for this family is in the grounds of St John’s Anglican Church in Canberra where Jill’s grandparents and uncle are buried.

Outside the Shrine and to the side of the Forecourt is The Cenotaph and Eternal Flame. These are the major features of WW2 remembrance. On top of the cenotaph is a basalt sculpture of six servicemen carrying a bier with a corpse, draped by the Australian flag. The sculpture symbolises “the debt of the living to the dead”. The Eternal Flame is placed nearby, representing eternal life. The flame has burned continuously with few interruptions since it was first lit.

Also in the grounds of the Shrine is a Remembrance Garden that features a pool, waterfall and granite wall bearing the names of the conflicts and peacekeeping operations in which Australia participated following World War II, such as Vietnam, Kuwait (Gulf War) and East Timor.

The Shrine is set in a large expanse of parkland officially called Kings Domain. Over the years many other war memorials have been built in this area, including the Australian-Hellenic Memorial to Australian and Greek dead in the Battles of Greece and Crete in 1941, and statues of Generals Monash and Blamey. Most of the trees which line the approaches to the Shrine bear plaques commemorating individual Army units, naval vessels or Air Force squadrons, placed there by veterans’ groups. An older memorial to Victorians killed in the Second Boer War of 1899–1902 is also located nearby on the corner of St Kilda and Domain Roads.