Memorial News
ARCHIVE 1999
Call To Action: Victoria
Victorian teachers enjoying themselves in the Discovery Room.
22/12/99 - Over sixty educators from Victoria came to Canberra recently for a discovery weekend. The tour was initiated by the Australian War Memorial and was the second in a series of Calls to Action intended to reach all Australian states. It focussed on providing the educators with first hand knowledge of education programs at the Memorial and other Canberra cultural institutions, including ScreeenSound Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, Questacon, and the National Capital Authority. The visitors viewed the Memorial's new Discovery Room for children, Education Programs, Second World War galleries, and the Treloar Technology Centre, as well as being briefed on developments for the new ANZAC Hall.
Ivor Hele: The Heroic Figure Opens At Memorial
Memorial Director Steve Gower and National Gallery Director Dr. Brian Kennedy inspect the exhibition, watched over by a Hele self-portrait.
16/12/99 - The Memorial's travelling exhibition Ivor Hele: the heroic figure has opened in the Memorial's Special Exhibition Gallery after more than two years on the road. It was officially opened by the Director of the National Gallery of Australia, Dr. Brian Kennedy, in front of several hundred guests.
Ivor Hele was Australia's longest-serving official war artist, painting the troops in North Africa, New Guinea and Korea. He attained the rank of major, the highest ever accorded to an official war artist. The Memorial holds the largest single collection of his works - some 500 in all.
Present at the opening on the evening of 16 December was Hele's life-long friend, sculptor John Dowie, as well as Hele's niece Marcia Rankin. Both travelled from Adelaide for the opening.
Memorial Wins Award for Service Charter
Bruce Scott, Minister for Veterans' Affairs, and Memorial staff Gina Drummond, Brian Ridley, Helen Withnell, and Sandy Clugston.
The Memorial has taken out a Silver Award in the inaugural Service Charters - Awards for Excellence in Customer Service scheme.
At a recent function at Parliament House in Canberra, the Memorial took out the Silver for excellence in service practices in agencies with service charters.
The awards are judged by the Australian Quality Council and recognise government agencies that provide a high level of customer service.
The Silver Award was accepted by the Memorial's Assistant Director - Public Programs, Helen Withnell.
Sydneysider becomes First Female Official Artist Since World War 2
Wendy Sharpe.
Photograph courtesy of The
Age
5/12/99 - Sydney artist and Archibald Prize winner, Wendy Sharpe, has been appointed as the Australian War Memorial's first female official artist since the Second World War. Like Rick Amor, who recently returned from Dili as an official artist, Wendy will cover the conflict in East Timor for two weeks in December 1999.
Click here for more information.
ANZAC Hall Design Unveiled
8/11/99 - Plans for the Australian War Memorial's new ANZAC Hall were unveiled in Canberra on 8 November 1999 by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Bruce Scott. Mr Scott said the design for ANZAC Hall, created by leading Australian architects Denton Corker Marshall, would add to the Memorial's status as a nationally significant site.
Little Pattie Opens Impressions
Dennis Trew (artist), Little Pattie and Simon Forrester
(curator of Impressions) viewing
Readings from the book of the dead.
Denis Trew
15/10/99 -Singer Little Pattie (Patricia Thompson) has officially opened the Australian War Memorial's travelling exhibition Impressions: Australians in Vietnam in the Memorial's Special Exhibition Space.
Impressions explores the experiences of Australians who fought in Vietnam, and their subsequent reflections on those experiences. It uses photographs, art works and personal relics to tell those stories.
Click here for more information.
Travelling Exhibitions Half Millionth Visitor
Louise Doyle (Manager, Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery), Mary Snepp, Memorial Director Steve Gower, Carol Cartwright (Manager, Travelling Exhibitions), .
13/10/99 - Mrs. Mary Snepp and her husband John from Sydney's Double Bay received an unexpected surprise when they visited the Australian War Memorial's travelling exhibition Up Front: faces of Australia at War at the Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery.
Mary walked into the Gallery at 11:30am on Wednesday 13 October to be met by Memorial Director Steve Gower who announced she was the 500,000th visitor to an AWM travelling exhibition.
Click here for more information.
First Official War Artist Since Vietnam
Rick Amor.
Photograph by Simon Schluter, courtesy of The
Age
13/10/99 - The Australian War Memorial is reviving the Official War Art Scheme and is about to conclude an agreement to send Melbourne artist, Rick Amor, to East Timor to record Australia's involvement in the crisis, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs Bruce Scott, has announced.
"Rick Amor will be the first Official War Artist to be appointed since Vietnam," Mr. Scott said.
Click here for more information.
Medals Of "Drip Rifle" Inventor Presented To Memorial
Judith Storey, Anne McDonald and Pat Keene presenting Captain Scurry's medals to the Memorial
17/9/99 - The medals of the Australian soldier who invented the drip rifle have been presented to the Australian War Memorial. In 1915 Lance Corporal (later Captain) William Scurry was serving with the 7th Battalion at Gallipoli when he developed a system to allow rifles to be fired automatically to cover the ANZAC's withdrawal from the Peninsula.
Click here for more information.
Boer War Conference
13/9/99
- This year's Chief of Army / Australian War Memorial Military History
Conference will be held in Canberra on 4-6th November. As 1999 marks
the centenaries of the outbreak of the Boer War and of the departure
of the first Australian colonial contingents to the War, shortly to
be followed by the Centenary of Federation, the theme of this year's
conference is ‘The Boer War: Army, Nation and Empire'. A partnership
between the Army and the Australian War Memorial, the major three day
event will feature a number of highly regarded Australian and international
experts on the period providing analysis of the strategic, political
and social aspects of the conflict.
It is expected that more than 300 delegates will attend the conference, which will be held at the National Convention Centre in Canberra 4-5 November and the Australian War Memorial on 6 November 1999. For further information you may download PDF files containing the conference brochure, a registration form (please click here for help with downloading PDF files), or contact the Army History Unit on (02) 6266 2744.
Bellona
11/8/99
- One of Canberra's best-loved icons, Sir
Bertram Mackennal's War or ‘Bellona', as it is better
known, has finally come home to the Australian War Memorial's new Sculpture
Garden. The sculpture, portraying Bellona: Roman goddess of war
and made in 1906, was unveiled on 11 August 1999 near the Lone Pine
tree. War is a tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of the ANZACs
at Gallipoli during the First World War.
Click here for more information.
Architect Selected For Design Of ANZAC Hall
Steve Gower, Director of the Memorial; Bruce Scott, Minister for Veterans' Affairs; John Denton, Director of Denton Corker Marshall and Senator Margaret Reid, President of the Senate, signing the architectural design contract for ANZAC Hall.
14/7/99 - Leading architectural firm Denton Corker Marshall has been appointed to design the new ANZAC Hall at the Australian War Memorial.
Click here for more information.
New Discovery Room Now Open
9/6/99
- Experience life in the First World War trenches or bandage a wounded
soldier in a Casualty Clearing Station. Measure your height and see
if you were tall enough to enlist. Listen to 1940s music on the wireless
in a wartime kitchen equipped with an original ice box and "Early
Kooka" stove. Issue orders from the bridge of a Corvette and track
a submarine during the Second World War. Feel the heat under a tent
at Nui Dat, Vietnam.
Follow a typical Australian family through four generations from the First and Second World Wars through to Vietnam and today. All in the Memorial's new Discovery Room – now open to kids of all ages!
Digger James New Chair Of Australian War Memorial Council
12/5/99 - Major General Digger James has been elected as the new chair of the Council of the Australian War Memorial. He takes over from General Peter Gration, who is retiring after five years as Chairman.
Digger James is a veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He was seriously wounded and lost a leg in Korea and was subsequently awarded the Military Cross for bravery. He later studied medicine. He held the position of Director-General of Army Health Services from 1982-85.
Major General James has been a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial since 1993.
Appointments to Australian War Memorial Council
Two new members of the Council of the Australian War Memorial have been announced. Lieutenant General John Grey AC and Ann Rowland-Campbell have been appointed for three years.
General Grey served as Chief of the General Staff from 1992 to 1995 and was the Army representative on the Council of the Australian War Memorial during that period. In 1995, he was made a Companion in the Order of Australia. General Grey is also the Chancellor of James Cook University and an honorary Life Member of the RSL and the Defence Reserves Association.
Mrs Rowland-Campbell is Executive Director of the Graphics Arts Merchants Association of Australia, director of New Media Connections and a member of the Policy Advisory Group in the School of Social Science and Policy at the University of NSW. She is a former Executive Director of the Royal Institute of Public Administration , NSW Division, and has served on the State's Museums Advisory Council and Arts Advisory Council.
Carr Impressed With Australian War Memorial
14/4/99 - On the14th April the Sydney Morning Herald carried the following story:
War 'duty' for pupils: Carr
Every NSW school student should visit the Australian War Memorial in Canberra as part of their "patriotic duty", the NSW Premier, Mr Carr, said yesterday as he indicated it would form part of the education curriculum.
Mr Carr said the memorial and its new galleries were outstanding and better than the Imperial War Museum in London and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
"I want it to be seen as part of the education of every boy and girl in a NSW school," he said. "I am committed to elevating it. It is the best way of us saying 'Lest we forget'."
Mr Carr said he would ask the Minister for Education, Mr Aquilina, to "make it a point" that all school excursions to Canberra included a visit to the memorial.
The Premier, a noted history buff, said he would work with the memorial to develop teaching materials for NSW schools. Using his skills as a former journalist, he also intends to write an article about the memorial.
"I think it's a patriotic duty that every Australian should see that museum," he said.
"It dramatises the story of Australia in the wars by telling the story of individual Australians. I couldn't have been more impressed by it."
1918 Online Exhibition
23/4/99
- An online exhibition 1918 Australians
In France has been developed by the Memorial to accompany the
travelling exhibition 1918
Australians In France. It features text, photographs, artworks
and film-clips about 1918 battles, people and technology. It also includes
a quiz and forms for visitors to contribute their stories or comments.
The online exhibition was launched on this website on April 23, the same day the travelling exhibition opened at the Queensland Museum.
Official Opening Of Multi-Million Dollar Galleries
11/3/99 - The Australian War Memorial's multi-million dollar gallery redevelopment program is complete, with the opening of new Second World War and Orientation galleries and refurbished Post 1945 exhibitions. The War Memorial also has a new Research Centre, remodelled Western Entrance foyer, new central stair area and Special Exhibition Gallery.
The new Second World War and Orientation galleries feature state of the art display techniques, multi media, interactives and "experiences". Many of the old favourite relics remain, but are displayed in innovative ways, while many items are being displayed for the first time. There is particular emphasis on personal stories to enhance Australia's experience of war. The Memorial is, after all, about people and their contribution and sacrifice. The new galleries are designed to engage and communicate with visitors, particularly those with no first-hand experience of war – today, that is the majority of Australians.
The Prime Minister officially opened the new galleries and the new Sculpture Garden on 11 March.
Redevelopment
There is a new section on the AWM website entitled Redevelopment. It includes information about the Gallery Redevelopment, Sculpture Garden and ANZAC Hall projects. Special features include a message from the Director, photographs of work in progress, and a report on the moving of the Gallipoli boat into the Orientation Gallery.
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