Villers-Bretonneux WWI memorial is a triumph

IT IS a testament to Tony Abbott, John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull that Australia has a fitting memorial to the sacrifice of our diggers on the Western Front, writes Miranda Devine.

THE opening of the Sir John Monash Centre in Villers-Bretonneux, the $100 million memorial to Australia’s diggers on the Western Front, was a triumph of three Liberal prime ministers.

Tony Abbott was the driving force from his first days in office, funding the centre, presiding over its design and weaving the story that would shift our focus from Gallipoli to France.

Malcolm Turnbull oversaw construction. And John Howard, whose father and grandfather both fought in the Somme, came up with the idea to build a visitors’ centre in Villers-Bretonneux.

In 2003, Howard asked the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for a feasibility study, with Ypres, Fromelles, Bullecourt, Le Hamel and Sailly-le-Sec among proposed locations.

Dr Graeme Killer, then the DVA’s Principal Medical Advisor, says he was in Howard’s office in 2006 with someone from the department when Howard raised the idea of the WWI memorial and asked where it should be.

Killer, doctor to five Prime Ministers from Keating to Abbott, remembers Pozieres was raised because of the high number of Australian casualties.

But having travelled there with veterans since 1991, Killer was certain Villers-Bretonneux should be the location.

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott attended the official opening of the Sir John Monash Centre at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. (Pic: Lukas Coch)

“I said there’s only one place it should be built, in view of the story of Monash and the victory and already at VB we have a wonderful memorial and cemetery. [Howard] said ‘I agree, that’s where we should put it’ … He understood because of his family connections. It was really in his DNA, this memorial.”

But then came the Rudd government, and the project sat in mothballs until the election of Tony Abbott in 2013. Within weeks, Abbott asked the DVA for a proposal for an Australian interpretative centre, and the business case was approved by 2015.

On Anzac Day 2015, Abbott went to Villers-Bretonneux, and announced the Monash centre would be built by 2018, saying: “Gallipoli was a splendid failure; the Western Front was a terrible success and we should recall our victories as much as our defeats.”

Last week, Turnbull invited Abbott to join him at the launch for a rare moment of unity.

The Monash Centre is a defining legacy of the Abbott government. But it is also a testament to what can be achieved when these three Liberal PMs work together for the betterment of Australia.

Originally published as Villers-Bretonneux WWI memorial is a triumph