Councils in battle over plan to move Unley World War I monument the Dardanelles Cenotaph to Anzac Memorial Walk
A BATTLE is brewing between two local councils over the “emotional and historical theft” of Australia’s first World War I monument.
A BATTLE is brewing between two local councils over the “emotional and historical theft” of Australia’s first World War I monument.
Adelaide City Council has given the State Government permission to move the Dardanelles Cenotaph from the south Parklands to the Anzac Memorial Walk on Kintore Ave, in the CBD.
But Unley Council and families linked to the monument — including Walter Dollman, the grandson of a prominent World War I veteran — are launching a bid to keep the cenotaph in the Parklands, arguing its removal would be an “indefensible bastardisation” of SA’s history.
Unley councillors have called on the City Council to reverse a decision to allow the 101-year-old cenotaph to be shifted from Lundie Gardens, off South Tce.
Cr Mike Hudson said the monument was intrinsically linked to Unley’s history because it was built, in part, to honour the 27th Battalion — a legion of local soldiers who became known as “Unley’s Own”.
“I look upon this … as emotional and historical theft,” Cr Hudson said last week of plans to move the monument to the CBD.
“It would be an indefensible bastardisation of the monument.”
Four months after the Gallipoli landing, a group fundraising for the war effort, the Wattle Day League, commissioned Unley-based builder Walter Torode to design a memorial for soldiers’ wives, daughters and sisters to remember those who had died in the Dardanelles campaign.
The granite cenotaph was unveiled at Veale Gardens in September 1915 and is widely considered the first monument to the Gallipoli campaign in Australia.
The City Council in 2015 approved the State Government’s request to relocate the memorial to Kintore Ave as part of its $10 million Anzac Memorial Walk project.
The government wanted the “forgotten memorial” in a more “prominent” location — a plan pushed by the state’s Veterans Advisory Council.
However, the monument has remained in the city’s greenbelt as Parklands protester Kelly Henderson — with the backing of the National Trust of SA — launched legal action to block its removal.
The appeal was dismissed last month, but the delay has helped bring the significance of the monument to Unley Council’s attention and given fresh hope to groups pushing for it to remain in the Parklands.
Walter Dollman, whose grandfather Colonel Walter Dollman commanded the 27th Battalion after serving as Unley mayor, said the current location of the memorial had “great significance”.
“This place is full of symbolism … it is a quiet place to reflect,” Dr Dollman told the Eastern Courier Messenger.
“(On Kintore Ave) It will be right alongside a pedestrian crossing.
“It is the antithesis of (its current location) — I would not go there for a quiet reflection of my grandfather.”
The City Council voted in May against a renewed push to keep the cenotaph in the Parklands, but is set to revisit the issue at a meting next month on the back of Unley’s request.
City councillor Sandy Wilkinson, who supports the monument remaining in the Parklands, wants his council and the State Government to install a replica of the cenotaph on Kintore Ave.
Veterans’ Affairs Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith last week maintained the Anzac Memorial Walk was the “most fitting location”.
He said it should be “accessible to all in the heart of the city, and not just a few visitors to the city fringes”.