Remembering the ANZACs in Emu Park

Renowned for its beautiful surrounds and linear depiction of battles, the Emu Park Centenary of ANZAC Memorial tells the story of Australia’s World War I heroes.

The memorial is located opposite the Emu Park RSL Sub Branch, around 40 kilometres east of Rockhampton.

RSL Queensland Central Queensland District President Barry Vains credits local Vietnam veteran Ross Coulter with the idea to build the memorial.

“Across the road from the Sub Branch, right on the coast actually, is the foreshore,” says Barry.

“Ross came up with a proposal to develop that area into a memorial as a Centenary of ANZAC project.”

Sadly, Ross passed away in 2011 before the memorial’s completion, but the community carried on with bringing his vision to life.

A Grassroots Movement

According to Barry, funding for the memorial started at a grassroots level in Emu Park.   

“We got the Bendigo Bank on side – they provided some funding towards it – and I started to meet with politicians to talk to them about it,” he says.

“In 2014, the Livingstone Shire Council de-amalgamated from the Rockhampton Council, and after that they came on board and basically adopted it as a project for the Shire.”

With the help of funding from the State and Federal Government, Livingstone Shire Council, Emu Park Sub Branch, Emu Park Lions, and Central Queensland District, construction on the memorial started in 2014.  

The first stage of the project, incorporating the Memorial Court Precinct and Centenary of ANZAC Memorial Walk, opened in 2015 to coincide with Centenary of ANZAC commemorations.

The second stage of the memorial opened on ANZAC Day in 2016, comprising a Gatehouse with floor-to-ceiling panels telling the story of and honouring the original ANZACs.

The Gatehouse provides a timeline of the major battles of World War I, including Gallipoli, the Somme, Fromelles, Lone Pine and many more. The walk follows the coastline and features a glass memorial depicting Australian soldiers landing at Gallipoli, through which the sun can be seen rising in the early morning.

Barry says the project’s success was largely due to how involved the community was in its development.

“It was a project that the community embraced.”

“A lot of local families feature in the timeline and panels in the Gatehouse. We used local veterans who went to World War I, and the project was supported by the three levels of government – the Livingstone Shire Council, the State Government, and the Commonwealth Government.

“Those sorts of projects, if you get the community behind them, they're more likely to get over the line.”

Educating the Next Generation

In addition to honouring the memory of the ANZACs, Barry says the memorial was also built to educate people.

“When it was designed, of course we wanted commemorative and tourism aspects, but we also wanted it to be about learning.

“It's specifically designed so that if you go through the timeline and do the chronological walk around all the panels, you should go away with a fair idea of what World War I was all about, and the terrible death toll.

“We lost something like 61,000 Australians during that war. When you consider that at the time, we only had a population in Australia of about 4.8 million, that's a pretty big percentage.

“Basically, we lost a whole young generation in World War I.”

Sometimes Barry says he still can’t believe the community was able to create such an incredible memorial.

“It's beautiful. That’s my own Sub Branch, and sometimes I go down there and I look at it and just say, ‘How in the world did we achieve this?’.”

The only way to properly experience the Emu Park Centenary of ANZAC Memorial yourself is to visit it in person. The memorial can be found just across from the RSL Queensland Emu Park Sub Branch at 1 Emu Street, Emu Park.