Virtual Tour of the Memorial

Commemorative Area

The first objects that visitors encounter on entering the Memorial are two medieval stone lions that previously stood at the gateway of the Menin road at Ypres (Ieper) and were damaged during the First World War. The lions were presented by the city of Ypres to the Memorial in 1936. From the entrance area, visitors can look up to the copper-clad dome of the Hall of Memory - inside which lies the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier. This is the commemorative heart of the Memorial.

Commemorative Courtyard

In front of the Hall of Memory is the Pool of Reflection, crowned by the Eternal Flame. To left and right, at a mezzanine level, visitors can see stone cloisters, where dark, bronze panels of the Roll of Honour record the names of over 102,000 Australian servicemen and women who have died in wars since the late nineteenth century. These names, listed alphabetically and by unit, do not include rank or honour. Many visitors insert paper poppies in the niches of the Roll of Honour, next to a name that has personal or group connections.

Commemorative Courtyard
360° Panorama of the Commemorative Courtyard showing the cloisters and Pool of Reflection.
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Eternal FlameRoll of HonourRoll of HonourRoll of Honour
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Hall of Memory

The focus of the Memorial is the Hall of Memory, a quiet place for contemplation of the efforts of ordinary Australians in war and for the remembrance of those who suffered and died. The Hall is a complex symbolic area, consisting of a number of pieces.

Hall of Memory
360° Panorama of the Hall of Memory
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Hall of MemoryTomb of the Unknown Australian SoldierTomb of the Unknown Australian SoldierDome in the Hall of MemoryThe Four PillarsStained glass windowMosaicMosaic
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Stained glass windows

Three groups of stained glass windows look down on visitors and the Tomb. Each one of the fifteen stained glass windows represents a defining quality of Australian servicemen and women. The personal, social and fighting qualities are displayed by figures in uniforms from the First World War. The windows were designed and executed by Napier Waller, a Victorian artist who lost his right arm during that war.

Mosaics

The walls and dome of the hall are lined with one of the largest mosaics in the world, also the work of Waller, unveiled in 1959. The mosaic inside the dome depicts the souls of the dead rising from the earth towards their spiritual home, represented by a glowing sun within the Southern Cross. The figures on the walls – a soldier, a sailor, an airman and a servicewoman – recall the Australian experience of the Second World War. Over six million pieces of glass tesserae, or tiles, imported from Italy, were used in the composition; the installation was overseen by Italian craftsmen and took three years to complete.

Tomb of the unknown soldier

In 1993, the remains of an Unknown Australian Soldier, killed in France in the First World War, were brought home from France and interred in the tomb in the centre of the hall. This unknown Australian represents all Australians who have given their lives for the nation during wartime. Read the text of Prime Minister Paul Keating's speech, delivered at the interment.

Four pillars

The four pillars behind the tomb represent the four ancient elements, earth, air, fire and water, symbolically encompassing the variety of terrain and climate in which Australians have served and died. The pillars were designed by Janet Lawrence. Originally a statue of a young Australian serviceman by Ray Ewers stood near the tomb; this statue can now be found in the Memorial's Sculpture Garden.

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