Memory Commemoration and the Meaning of a Suburban War Memorial

Abstract

War memorials are a significant feature of the Australian landscape. Thousands were erected after the First World War in towns and suburbs across the nation as a community focus for memory, grief, and pride of their soldiers lost in the war. The Victoria Park memorial in Perth, Western Australia, originally constructed in 1917, before the war ended, and replaced in 1957, was a small suburban memorial that was born in the enthusiasm of Empire and the growing concept of Anzac. The biography of this memorial reveals a chequered and contested history typical of many local memorials in Western Australia. Concentrating on the Victoria Park memorial this article seeks to explore the relationships between its physical aspects and setting, its meaning to the community and the linkages between objects and memory.