Janny Poate, whose son Robert was fatally wounded in an attack at a patrol base in August 2012, initially signed an online petition to bring the memorial home when Defence leaves the region at the end of the year.

Mrs Poate said she changed her mind following a trip to the base and memorial, consisting of concrete blast wall panels each weighing five tonnes, for a special commemorative ceremony last week.

''Nobody wants to destroy it, but a lot of the families I've spoken to see that it's the most appropriate thing,'' she said.

''The feeling was it would be better to have our people destroy it, rather than have it defaced. We'd rather be in control of it.''

Mrs Poate has since requested that her name be removed from the petition, which has gained more than 11,000 signatures since being launched by former soldier Scott Gardiner.

The memorial lists the names of the 40 Australians killed in Afghanistan, alongside those of 74 soldiers from the US, France and the Netherlands.

Mrs Poate said the Australian Defence Force had consulted with the other countries about the memorial, which ''belongs as much to our allies as it does to us''.

''It was really there for the boys at the base,'' she said.

''They had no other shrine.''

It is believed that parts of the memorial will be brought to Australia, while Mrs Poate said other memorials were visited as part of the ''very emotional'' trip earlier this month.

''It was such a whirlwind trip, but it was certainly a healing thing for a lot of the families,'' she said.

''I always felt that his spirit was left when his body came …

''I feel like I've brought him home, in a sense.''