Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The Australasian Dardanelles Memorial

Re-dedicated on 11 November 2018, it is now located at the northern end of the ANZAC Centenary Memorial Walk on Kintore Avenue, Adelaide (adjacent to the Pathway of Honour). It was relocated to its current position from Lundie Gardens, South Terrace, Adelaide.

Initially believed to be the first WWI Memorial erected in Australia on 7 September 1915, it has since been discovered that a publicly funded memorial at the Pinnaroo State School, South Australia preceded this memorial by some months (opened July 2 1915).

The Pinnaroo memorial was dedicated to one individual (Private Percy William Venning). However, the Adelaide memorial was dedicated to all soldiers, in particular for the losses sustained by the 9th Light Horse at Hill 60 on the Peninsula whose news had only just arrived in Adelaide a few days prior.

It is unusual in that the Memorial was opened while the campaign was still in progress. The terms 'ANZAC' and 'Gallipoli' were not at that time in the general lexicon of the day.

Initially unveiled on September 7, 1915, it commemorates the Dardanelles campaign which began with the landing on April 25 1915 – and mourns their subsequent casualties.

It was created at the bequest of the SA-originated Wattle Day League.

League member – Walter Torode, a prominent Adelaide builder, orchestrated the design and build; a 3.65 metre high granite obelisk.

He built a granite Cross of Sacrifice surmounted on a polished granite sur-base that in turn is mounted on a rough-cut tapered pedestal and two-tier rough-cut granite base and a concrete slab.

A bronze plaque is affixed to the top tier of the base.

The monument was originally located at Wattle Grove, Sir Lewis Cohen Avenue enclosed within a structure comprising a wooden superstructure supported by four wooden pillars.

The memorial was moved to Lundie Gardens in 1940, restored in 1969 and again in 2014/2015.