THE ever-growing crowds which gather each year for Windsor’s Anzac Day ceremony have forced Windsor RSL Sub-branch to organise a new memorial in McQuade Park.
With the old memorial on the corner of George and Tebbutt streets deemed no longer viable for Anzac Day last year due to the size of the crowds now, they used a temporary memorial in the heart of McQuade Park for 2015, but this one was destined for a permanent home at WSU Hawkesbury campus.
“We’d arrived at a position where even closing off roads around the existing memorial wasn’t enough,” Windsor RSL Sub-branch president Geoff Brand said. “People were having to stand behind the memorial and couldn’t hear.”
It was lucky they did move it to the centre of the park –last year’s record-breaking crowds were said to top 10,000 due to the centenary of Anzac Day.
Now the sub-branch has now lodged a DA for a permanent memorial in the heart of the park. The new design is similar to last year’s temporary memorial but a lot bigger. Plans are for three sandstone columns which will be three metres high, on a three-step one-metre high concrete plinth, with large bronze plaques.
Mr Brand said it would be a long process to get the new memorial up, as they first have to lodge the DA which has to go through state heritage office approval. Once the heritage office approves the materials, size and design, a true costing can be arrived at.
The estimated $50,000 cost will come from government grants and any shortfall made up by the sub-branch.
“We’re still waiting on grants,” Mr Brand said. “It’s a Catch 22 – we can’t apply for the grants until we’ve got costings and we can’t get costings until it’s approved by the heritage office.”
He said a temporary structure would be put up in the park for this year’s Anzac ceremony.
The permanent memorial will be by the pond in McQuade Park, facing towards the corner of Hawkesbury Valley Way and Moses Street.
It’s hoped a path will eventually connect the two memorials, with information plaques about the different wars along the way.