Anzac Parade is a significant road and thoroughfare in the Australian capital

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, used for ceremonial occasions and the site of many major military memorials. Named in honour of the

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was originally a First World War army corps of the British Empire under the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the ...

(ANZAC) of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Anzac Parade joins

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

Reach of

Lake Burley Griffin Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake in the centre of Canberra, the capital of Australia. It was created in 1963 by the damming of the Molonglo River, which formerly ran between the city centre and Parliamentary Triangle. The lake is na ...

in the south and the

Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...

to the north. As the main axis between

Parliament House Parliament House may refer to: Meeting places of parliament Australia * Parliament House, Canberra, Parliament of Australia * Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament of South Australia * Parliament House, Brisbane, Parliament of Queensland * P ...

and

Mount Ainslie Mount Ainslie is a hill with an elevation of that is located in the northeastern suburbs of Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Mount Ainslie lies within part of the Canberra Nature Park. Cultural significance Accordi ...

, it bisects Constitution Avenue, which forms one side of the

Parliamentary Triangle The National Triangle, also known as the Parliamentary Triangle, is the ceremonial precinct of Canberra, containing some of Australia's most significant buildings. The Triangle is formed by Commonwealth, Kings and Constitution Avenues. Buildin ...

between

Civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: Civic or CIVIC can also refer to: General *Honda Civic, a car produced by the Honda Motor Co. *Civics, the science of comparative government * Civic ...

and

Russell Hill Russell Hill may refer to: * Russell Hill (artist) (born 1988), British artist * Russell Hill (footballer) (1920–1987), Australian rules footballer * Russell Hill (war correspondent), see New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tri ...

. The Parade is flanked by Victorian blue gum

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

trees on gently sloping banks either side of the three-lane, one-way roads centred by a wide parade ground topped with granulated rock (similar to

scoria Scoria or cinder is a pyroclastic, highly vesicular, dark-colored volcanic rock formed by ejection from a volcano as a molten blob and cooled in the air to form discrete grains called clasts.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackso ...

), with planted boxes of a low bush called Hebe. The eucalypts are Australian; and the hebe comes from

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The Parade is also flanked by the streets of Anzac Park West and Anzac Park East on either side of Anzac Park. On

Anzac Day Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and ...

(25 April) and other ceremonial occasions, the Parade and adjoining streets may be blocked off to provide a parade route for formed groups of armed services personnel and

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces. A topic o ...

s to proceed either along the central parade ground or the flanking roads. Removable concrete kerbs to facilitate marching along the central parade route are at the cross streets of

Parkes Way Parkes Way is a major road in Canberra, Australia, which runs east-west between Kings Avenue and the Glenloch Interchange. At Glenloch Interchange it intersects with William Hovell Drive, Tuggeranong Parkway, and Caswell Drive ( Gungahlin Dri ...

Constitution Avenue Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the Northwest, Washington, D.C., northwest and Northeast, Washington, D.C., northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and ...

, Currong Street/ Blamey Crescent, and Limestone Avenue/ Fairbairn Avenue.

Memorial interpretation

In the manner of interpretation of

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

displays, the memorials are accompanied by several forms of signage to assist the passer-by. Each memorial has various plaques or

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

s that were laid at the time of unveiling. Additionally, interpretative signage in a common format has been provided by the

Government of Australia The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national Executive (government), executive government of Australia, a federalism, federal Parliamentary system, parliamentary con ...

adjacent to each memorial that gives succinct information about the nature and/or the site of the people or group or events leading to the establishment of the memorial.

Situation and history

Anzac Parade is situated on the main axis between

and

. It bisects Constitution Avenue, which forms one side of the

between

and

The Parade separates the residential suburbs of Campbell and

Reid Reid is a surname of Scotland, Scottish origin. It means "red". People with the surname * Alec Cunningham-Reid (1895–1977), British politician * Alan Reid (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Reid (disambiguation), multiple people * Alexan ...

. The naming is significant: * Robert Campbell,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

's first merchant, received a grant of land on the Limestone Plains as compensation for the loss of one of his ships on government charter. In 1825 he built a homestead, naming it Duntroon after the Campbell castle in

Argyllshire Argyll (; archaically Argyle; , ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. The county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975 and most of the area now forms part of ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Duntroon House is now part of the

Royal Military College, Duntroon The Royal Military College, Duntroon, also known simply as Duntroon, is the Australian Army's Officer (armed forces), officer training establishment. It was founded at Duntroon, Australian Capital Territory, Duntroon in Canberra, Australian Capi ...

. *The Right Honourable Sir George Houston Reid (1845–1918) was Australia's fourth Prime Minister who formed a Government in August 1904 and held office until July 1905. A Federalist, and one of the founders of the

Australian Constitution The Constitution of Australia (also known as the Commonwealth Constitution) is the fundamental law that governs the political structure of Australia. It is a written constitution, which establishes the country as a Federation of Australia, ...

, he entered the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

after having been

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

from 1894 to 1898. AnzacParadeCanberra1964

At the corner of Anzac Parade and Constitution Avenue is the historic

St John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, consecrated by the Bishop of Australia, William Broughton, on 12 March 1845, some 80 years before the site of the national capital was decided. Fortuitously, the alignment of the church was such that it seems to have been designed to fit the alignment of the adjoining roads, ordained in the plans by

Walter Burley Griffin Walter Burley Griffin (November 24, 1876February 11, 1937) was an American architect and landscape architect. He designed Canberra, Australia's capital city, the New South Wales towns of Griffith, New South Wales, Griffith and Leeton, New So ...

Lighting

The original lighting was designed to be a symbolic "

honour guard A guard of honour (Commonwealth English), honor guard (American English) or ceremonial guard, is a group of people, typically drawn from the military, appointed to perform ceremonial duties – for example, to receive or guard a head of state ...

" and was opened by then Prime Minister,

Robert Menzies The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...

, on

25 April 1965. The street

lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. ...

was updated and officially opened on 26 March 2001 by then

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...

. The design is intended to be efficient, and to reduce energy consumption and thus air

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause harm. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the component ...

while also reducing

skyglow Skyglow (or sky glow) is the diffuse luminance of the night sky, apart from discrete light sources such as the Moon and visible individual stars. It is a commonly noticed aspect of light pollution. While usually referring to luminance arising f ...

light pollution Light pollution is the presence of any unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting sources, during the ...

Heritage listing

25 April 2006 Federal Environment and Heritage Minister Ian Campbell announced that Anzac Parade along with the

would be added to the National Heritage List.

References

External links