It shut for 99 days from March 24 last year and then, in the latest lockdown, from August 14 until now when it comes back on parade, albeit with a lot of construction work going on.

Visitors from Wednesday morning will notice some changes.

The grand old entrance up the front steps, with Anzac Parade behind, is closed because of construction. The new entrance is to the side, by Poppy's Cafe, and features new long walk-ways and glass sliding doors.

Tickets need to be pre-booked, and they are for a timed period.

In the pre-pandemic days, visitors could turn up and get in. That changed to online pre-booking after the first lockdown in 2020. That system remains, partly because of COVID and the continued desire for social distancing, but also because construction for the expansion of the Memorial continues apace. It's a building site.

Parking arrangements have also changed. The new double-decker parking area for visitors is alongside the café in car park P1.

But the director of the Memorial, Matthew Anderson, is keen to say that the old areas of reverence remain the same for visitors.

"Once they're inside, they'll discover that all the things that they know and love about the Australian War Memorial have remained unchanged: the commemorative area, the tomb of the unknown Australian soldier, the roll of honour, the pool of reflection, the First and Second World War galleries have all remained untouched."

This isn't quite accurate: the Menin Gate lions have been switched in direction.

These ancient limestone sculptures stood on the mediaeval gates to the town of Ypres, the town in Flanders around which some of the most terrible fighting and terror occurred in the First World War. They were given in friendship to the War Memorial by the mayor of the Belgian city.

Before the Memorial closures, the sculptures greeted visitors entering through the front of the building. With that entrance closed, they have been turned to face into the courtyard of remembrance.

While the old interior area of the Memorial remains unchanged, the rest of the interior - the part which is more a military museum - and the surrounding area is changed and changing by the day.

Outside is now a construction site even though final approval is yet to be given on the Memorial's controversial $500 million expansion project. Early stages of the project have been approved by the National Capital Authority but approval for succeeding stages is awaited.

Much of the controversy was about the new Anzac Hall design to the back of the original domed building, with many of the 600 submissions in the public consultation critical.

According to its annual report for 2017-18 before the pandemic struck and visitors were locked out, just over a million people visited the Memorial in the year.

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