Chief of Defence Force General David Hurley unveiled the design for the National Boer War Memorial to be built on Anzac Parade yesterday and the consensus view was it is a cracker.
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To consist of four life-sized sculptures of Australian mounted troops in action, it will be a bronze diorama of a mounted patrol that will sit well with the other monuments already in the space.
Australia's first national conflict, the Boer War was raging at the time of Federation. Each state had originally sent its own troop contingents but this changed after March 1, 1901, when the Australian Army was formed.
National Boer War Memorial Association chairman Colonel John Haynes (Retired) has estimated the monument's final cost would be about $4 million. Of this $350,000 would be set aside as a revenue-generating fund to cover the cost of maintenance in perpetuity.
The association is hopeful Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who now heads the Anzac Centenary Committee, will be able to persuade the government to provide the necessary funds to ensure by 2015 all major conflicts in which Australian troops were involved have national memorials on Anzac parade.
The overall design for the memorial is by POD Landscape Architecture, while the individual equestrian sculptures will be the work of Louis Laumen, who created the Shane Warne statue at the MCG. POD designed the Korean War Memorial in Sydney. The site for the memorial was dedicated in 2008.
