Flame of Remembrance to honour Tasmania’s fallen war heroes

CONSTRUCTION  will begin today on the long-awaited Flame of Rem­embrance and Reflection Pool that will feat­ure in next year’s Centenary Anzac Day.

CONSTRUCTION  will begin today on the long-awaited Flame of Rem­embrance and Reflection Pool that will feat­ure in next year’s Centenary Anzac Day.

The Flame of Remembrance has been a long time coming but worth the wait, RSL Tasmania state president Robert Dick said at the Hobart Cenotaph Remembrance Day ceremony yesterday.

Mr Dick said Hobart’s Eternal Flame would be lit from the RSL Anzac flame, which was struck from flint on the beach at Albany, Western Australia, at a ceremony in September.

Similar to the Olympic flame, which is carried across the world before arriving in the host Games city, the Anzac flame is being carried by light horsemen across Australia before Anzac Day next year.

The Tasmanian flame will be delivered to Camp Gallipoli at the TCA Ground where a vigil will be kept overnight before Anzac Day.

On Anzac Day, a Tasmanian Light Horseman, holding aloft a World War I bayonet replica torch, will light the Hobart Remembrance Flame in the Reflection Pool before the main service.

“The state branch of the RSL tried to get this project up and running back in 2005,’’ Mr Dick said.

“Due to complications in getting gas to the site, the proj­ect was postponed.’’

The Flame of Rememberance would sit in the middle of the 7m long, 4m wide Reflection Pool with the words Lest We Forget etched around the perimeter, he said.

“The Flame of Remembrance and Reflection Pool is the RSL Tasmania’s gift to the Tasmanian people as a site of remembrance and reflection for all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in time of war and in defence of our great nation,’’ Mr Dick said.

The pool will sit at the end of Anzac Parade, in front of the Hobart Cenotaph between the two pillars.

Lord Mayor Alderman Sue Hickey said the location would provide exceptional views for visitors and would add to the Cenotaph setting.

“This special memorial is likely to evoke poignant memories for relatives and friends visiting the Domain,” Ald Hickey said.

News of the memorial came as thousands of Tasmanians gathered at Remembrance Day Services around the state.

At an earlier gathering at the nearby Soldiers Memorial Avenue, 17 more plaques were unveiled along the tree-lined pathway that snakes down through the Domain.

Parliamentary secretary Guy Barnett announced $1.1 million of Anzac Centenary funding to continue landscaping the Memorial Avenue corridor.

Mr Barnett said the money would be used to build picnic shelters and pavilions that would ultimately link the Dom­ain with the Cenotaph.

The Soldiers Memorial Ave­nue had 520 trees planted in 1918 and 1919 to commemorate Tasmanian soldiers who died in the Great War.

Friends of Soldiers Memorial Avenue, which was formed in 2002 to safeguard and restore the Avenue, has planted new trees where old ones have died and installed plaques in front of each tree, listing the soldier’s name, date of birth and where they were killed in action.

Year 9 Ogilvie High School students attended the unveiling as part of their history lessons. History teacher Jan Hunt said her stud­ents had chosen to research the stories of individual soldiers.

“These plaques personalise it for them,’’ Ms Hunt said.

“It gives the soldiers a family name, a personality, so that it’s not about the numbers who were killed, it’s about the individuals.’’

Originally published as Flame of Remembrance to honour Tasmania’s fallen war heroes