Sir John Monash Centre near Villers-Bretonneux will honour diggers who fought on the Western Front
A NEW $100 million museum honouring the nearly 300,000 diggers who fought on the Western Front has been designed to elevate their sacrifice in our memories.
National
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THE extraordinary $100 million new museum paying homage to the almost 300,000 Australian soldiers who fought on the Western Front in World War I is emerging from the landscape in rural France.
The Sir John Monash Centre, an interpretative museum and place of reflection, is under construction at an existing memorial site outside the township of Villers-Brettoneux in northern France.
The remarkable complex is being discreetly built behind the limestone walls at the Australian National Memorial, which since 1938 has borne the names of more than 10,000 lost Australian soldiers who died in WWI, and whose bodies were never recovered.
Two of its three storeys will be underground, and it will feature a soaring cantilevered cement roof which took 62 trucks 10.5 hours to create in a continuous pour.
Visitors will emerge from an immersive theatre underground, through the galleries to a courtyard before ascending a staircase overlooking the battlefields where so many Australian lives were lost — and a great Allied victory unfolded when the Australians helped repel the Germans from the town of Villers-Bretonneux on the night of April 24-25, 1918.
They will enter the centre through a long trench, designed to replicate the experience of the soldiers, and pass by celebrated Australian words set into the brickwork such as mate, two-up, dinkum and smoko.
The centre, named after one of Australia’s most celebrated WWI generals, Melbourne-born Sir John Monash, is part of Australia’s push to have the sacrifices made on the Western Front elevated in the public consciousness to the same level as the battle of Gallipoli in Turkey.
Between 1916 and 1918, more than 295,000 Australians fought on the Western Front. More than 47,000 were killed and more than 130,000 wounded.
Veterans’ Affairs Minister Dan Tehan said the centre played an important role in ensuring the sacrifice of the Australian soldiers was never forgotten.
“The Western Front will always be a solemn and sacred place for Australia because here more Australians have been killed than anywhere else,’’ he said.
“It will stand as a permanent reminder to Australians, and to the world, about our country’s service and sacrifice on the Western Front.’’
The centre is expected to open on Anzac Day next year, which also marks the centenary of the Battle of Villers-Brettoneux.
“When it opens it will become a special place for Australians visiting Europe to stop, pause and reflect on Australia’s contribution to modern Europe, on the Anzac values that have shaped us and the horrible cost that our country has paid because of war,’’ Mr Tehan told News Corp.
More than 110,000 visitors are expected to visit the centre a year, including school groups from Australia, France and the UK.
The multimedia displays will include images, film and sound, and will be delivered in English, French and German. There will be no entry fee.
The on-site project managers, Caroline and Wade Bartlett, said every effort had been made to ensure the new centre was harmonious with the existing memorial, which had been in place since 1938, and included a Commonwealth war grave cemetery for 1500 soldiers, including 731 Australians.
Mrs Bartlett said the bricks had been manufactured specifically for the project to ensure the precise colour matched the brickwork in the original memorial.
The grass which was removed from the site was studied for three months to learn its precise seed composition, and an identical composition will be planted across the centre’s roof to ensure it blends seamlessly into its surroundings.
Mr Bartlett said some of the 200 objects found when the area was de-mined before construction, such as helmets and rifles, would be displayed in the centre.
Dale Starr from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs said the centre would help encourage a “new pilgrimage’’ for young Australians who wanted to discover and pay respect at the sites where their ancestors had fought and died.
Originally published as Sir John Monash Centre near Villers-Bretonneux will honour diggers who fought on the Western Front
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