Centenary provides special focus for 2018 Anzac Day
Inner West Council and Balmain-Rozelle RSL will again hold an ANZAC Day Commemorative Dawn Service at Balmain’s Loyalty Square from 6am on Wednesday 25 April.
The Balmain Dawn Service has proved extremely popular since first held in 2014 with crowds lining Darling Street leading up to the Loyalty Square monument that is the centre of the service.
Unveiled on 23 April 1916 just before the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, the Loyalty Square monument is one of the oldest memorials to World War 1 (WW1) soldiers.
This Balmain Dawn Service also coincides with the Centenary of Anzac (2014 to 2018) being commemorated across the nation and overseas, marking 100 years since our involvement in the First World War.
Also of added commemorative significance this year, Inner West Council has restored the WW1 memorial in Camperdown Park in time for ANZAC Day 2018.
The $36,000 restoration was part-funded by a NSW Community War Memorials Fund grant of $10,000.
The WW1 memorial was installed at Camperdown Park in 1921. It comprises a marble statue of a Digger holding a rifle on a sandstone plinth base. The names of local soldiers who died through service during WW1 are inscribed in gold gild on the base.
On Remembrance Day 2014, a cutting from the original Gallipoli Lone Pine was planted adjacent to the memorial.
The extensive work on the memorial includes:
• Modelling and replacement of the soldier's missing hand, gun, fingers and scabbard
• Restoration and replacement of the Digger's legs and tree stump element
• Specialist cleaning of the memorial stonework and marble statue
• Re-gilding of all inscriptions (four sides of the plinth) using 24k gold leaf
• Repairs to the stone and marble corners
• Repointing of the joints
For media inquiries, please contact Brendan Berecry 9392 5218