Skip to main content

ANZAC Day and the South Australian Governor General's New Fence

ANZAC Centenary Memorial
Walk, Adelaide SA.
Australian's love to honour their war heroes and so they should. South Australia is no exception, with memorials to fallen soldiers in almost every town and city. Adelaide even has road bridges named after famous battles from the Vietnam war.

ANZAC Day (April 25th) is the one day where we put all those war memorials to use in memory of all who served from World War I onward with parades and dawn services attended by thousands.

Arguably, ANZAC day is more popular than it ever has been in Australia, with pilgrimages back to Gallipoli in Turkey now a thing that many Australians hope to do at least once. To see and attend services where it all began.


War Memorial,
North Terrace, Adelaide.
The city of Adelaide has a perfectly good war memorial, on North Terrace, where ANZAC day services have been held for years. Typically it's one of the biggest gatherings in the state for dawn services.

Two days prior to ANZAC day a 280 metre Memorial walk consisting of a commemorative wall with depictions of various moments from Australian war history in Black Granite, book ended by black metal fencing with matching planter boxes, benches and lighting was officially opened along Kintore avenue (just behind the existing North Terrace Memorial).

At a cost of 10 million dollars, contributed by the Australian Government' ANZAC Centenary Fund (5 million), the South Australian Government (3 million) and the Adelaide City Council (2 million) it's probably one of the most expensive public fences ever built in South Australia.

What the...?

You see the wall its self runs along the eastern boundary of Government House, which conceded some land in order to make the path wide enough to include the walk way and planter boxes. You can see an animated 3D representation of the walk in the video below.



When I heard about this wall being unveiled I decided to go see for myself what 10 million gets you in the way of a wall. I have to say the above video is a fairly accurate depiction of the completed wall and memorial walk (but with younger trees).

Notice how much of the wall is mainly a metal, open blade fence. (My partner commented "No more nude sun baking for the Governor General!").

Not the best time of day for a photo.
I did take some of my own photos but because I was there in the afternoon the wall was mostly in shade. So instead of seeing the nicely etched artwork, the wall's black granite mostly reflected the buildings on the opposite side of the street.

I'm not intentionally trying to be cynical. Having seen the memorial walk for myself, it is a good use of the space that would otherwise, could only ever be a footpath. It may even become a popular lunch time spot or gathering place with all the seating. It will no doubt hold much significance for past and present service men and women, their families and the general public, particularly on ANZAC and Remembrance day.

I just can't help but think, did we need it enough to spend 10 million dollars of public money when we have so many memorials already, and many other more urgent community needs competing for funding?

TET Life Topics:

Comments

  1. Mum60April 28, 2016 6:12 PM

    Quite impressive! I didn't realise that was the reflection of the buildings opposite until you said. I was thinking how colourful it looked. I was also going to ask if it was a computer generated video, as the people didn't look real, but you said it was an animated version of it, so that answered my question. Is that Kathy reflected on the right of the picture?

    It's quite a long walk! You could certainly get your exercise walking down that and back! Would use up 10 million I would think with the amount of metal in it.

    I haven't seen all the war memorials in Australia, but Perth's one in King's Park is impressive with the flame.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TET (David Arandle)April 29, 2016 1:18 PM

      Depending on which way you're walking it's either up or downhill too. I have a feeling the black granite would be a big part of the cost - more than the metal. The wall, including the base of the metal fence and all the planter boxes are black granite.

      I don't think that is Kathy in the reflection. I seem to recall she was standing more behind me and wearing a more colourful top with sneakers.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated by an actual human (me, TET) and may not publish right away. I do read all comments and only reject those not directly related to the post or are spam/scams (I'm looking at you Illuminati recruiters... I mean scammers. Stop commenting on my Illuminati post!).

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art  image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

Bruce, South Australia - A Forgotten Aussie Town with Spectacular Landscape Views and Potential

The Bruce Railway Station. Now a private residence. V isiting the almost forgotten town of Bruce reminds me of visiting Silverton back in 2007, except Silverton has been revived into a kind of arts town with a very famous pub. Bruce, on the other hand seems a little too spread out, and a bit too out of the way to make a similar 'arts' kind of revival. Bruce's Pub appears to be an art studio with signs of restoration work in progress. The main part of town appears to be the Bruce railway station (now a private residence) and a pub, also privately owned and possibly was, or still is, and artist studio. Other buildings and homesteads are set fairly wide apart, and are mostly privately owned homes. You don't get much sense of being in a town as such. I'm told there are approximately 14 local residents/families? Once earmarked to be a commercial centre, Bruce fell by the wayside after successive floods and drought in its early years. Obviously the railway line is no lo...
3 comments
Continue Reading »

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...
16 comments
Continue Reading »

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas  (see vi...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

Kids today are smarter than their parents?

Mother's Bed Art Board Print by TET. Available from RedBubble . How often have you heard it said that kids today are smarter than their parents? I’ve heard it quite frequently in the media – even Dr Phil has said it. I say speak for yourself. It’s not true and don’t let the media fool you. Today’s kids may have access to more information that may give them more choices but in my experience, they only take in what they want to hear and still make stupid, uninformed decisions. Just like we used to at their age. Like any cross section of people there will be exceptions. There are kids that are genuinely smarter, more mature and responsible for their age. However the vast majority know everything they need to know by the time they turn fourteen. They’re ‘adult’ enough to be responsible for all their own decision making so parents should just let them do what they please…right? Just like we thought at fourteen. Don’t be fooled. Just because your son knows how to download MP3’s onto an i...
15 comments
Continue Reading »

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls.  The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »