City of Yarra councillors to decide the fate of rusting German field gun captured in World War One
WHAT’S a local council to do with a rusting field gun captured in World War One? City of Yarra residents will soon find out.
VIC News
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A FIELD gun captured from German forces in World War One and now rusting in a council depot is set for a new lease of life.
The military relic was put in Collingwood’s Darling Gardens after the war as a “trophy gun” but removed in 2013 after someone was injured trying to climb it.
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City of Yarra councillors will tomorrow vote on a management recommendation that the 50mm Krupp Howitzer be restored and reinstalled in another area.
The $38,000 cost would be mostly covered by a federal grant and support from the RSL and Australian Defence Force.
The gun is currently languishing in the driveway of a council depot in Richmond, but is still considered a public risk because the area is used for illegal parking.
A council management report said that some people don’t want to see guns displayed as “objects of war”, but noted that Australia had a long tradition of displaying silenced weapons in public spaces.
It proposed that the gun be restored and installed in Richmond’s Barkly Gardens, near an existing Anzac war memorial.
“(T)he history and story of the field gun would be highlighted including the capture of the weapon and its part in the final moments of the First World War though well-researched and designed interpretative panels or signage,” the report said.
In a report to council, artillery expert Kevin Browning said that in 1933 a motion was put to the then Collingwood Council that the gun be returned to Germany as “a friendly gesture with fraternal greetings for the co-operation of both nations in peaceful progress in the future”.
The motion, put shortly after Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany, was lost, while six years later Hitler triggered World War II with the invasion of Poland.
Mr Browning said the German gun was not a war symbol, but a symbol of the “sacrifices our forebears gave for the freedoms we so love and enjoy today”.
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