Sandgate War Memorial Park is a heritage-listed
memorial at 8 Seymour Street,
Sandgate,
City of Brisbane
The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of the metropolitan area of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. Unlike LGAs in the other mainlan ...
,
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
, Australia. It was designed by
George Gray Prentice
George Gray Prentice (25 July 1891 – July 1944) was an architect practising in Brisbane, Australia, during the first half of the twentieth century and was involved in the design and construction of numerous major buildings in South East Que ...
and built from 1923 to 1924 by Lowther & Sons. It was added to the
Queensland Heritage Register
The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. A ...
on 3 October 2005.
History
Sandgate War Memorial Park is a triangular portion of land situated close to the
Sandgate Town Hall
Sandgate Town Hall is a heritage-listed town hall at 5 Brighton Road, Sandgate, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Thomas Ramsay Hall and built from 1911 to 1912 by John Gemmell. It was added to the Queensland Herita ...
. The war memorial located in the middle of the park was unveiled on 24 February 1924 to memorialize the men from Sandgate who had died while serving their country during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(1914 - 1918).
[
European settlement in the Sandgate district began in the 1850s. By the 1860s, the area was frequented by visitors from ]Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
for recreational purposes and after the opening of the rail to Sandgate in 1882 the area rapidly developed as a seaside resort. The Sandgate Post Office
Sandgate Post Office is a heritage-listed former post office at 1 Bowser Parade, Sandgate, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed in the office of the Queensland Colonial Architect and built from 1886 to 1887. It is also know ...
was erected near the Sandgate railway station in 1887, the Town of Sandgate
The Town of Sandgate is a former local government area of Queensland, Australia, located in northern Brisbane adjacent to Moreton Bay.
History
Land in Sandgate became available in 1853, allowing a small seaside settlement to develop. By 1874, ...
was proclaimed in 1902 and a town hall erected in 1912. By the mid-twentieth century, increased use of cars meant that more distant seaside places became more accessible and the popularity of Sandgate as a seaside resort declined.[
According to Brigadier ]James Cannan
Major General James Harold Cannan, (29 August 1882 – 23 May 1976) was an Australian Army brigadier general in the First World War and the Quartermaster General during the Second World War.
Cannan assumed command of the 15th Battalion in 19 ...
, in a speech given at the unveiling of the Sandgate monument, 330 soldiers from the township had enlisted for World War I. Of these, 51 were killed. The impact of the war Australia-wide was devastating with over 300, 000 volunteers from a national population of four million serving overseas and one fifth, approximately 60,000 dying. Virtually every community in every state was affected by the war in Europe and Asia Minor.[
After the war, memorials honouring those who served were erected in nearly every city, town and community in Australia. The erection of memorials peaked during the period 1919 to 1925. Typically, a committee of patriotic citizens was formed which raised money by public subscription and public entertainments. Land on which to erect the memorial was usually provided by the local authority. Expenditure was often considerable for the size of communities and war memorials became a matter of local pride, an indication of a district's patriotism and wealth.][
Construction of the Sandgate memorial was organized by a committee chaired by the Mayor of Sandgate (Alderman William Henry Bowser). The design was by prominent Queensland architect, George Gray Prentice, who was practicing at the time in partnership with ]Thomas Ramsay Hall
Thomas Ramsay Hall (2 January 1879 – 15 December 1950) was an architect practicing in Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia an ...
as Hall & Prentice. The Brisbane newspapers reported that the memorial, composed of about 100 tons of granite and concrete, cost around £850. The granite blocks that made up most of the structure were donated by Alderman Bowser from his quarry at Samford and the top sills and the borders of the trachyte
Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava enriched with silica and al ...
panels were of polished Victorian granite. At the unveiling, the Mayor noted that granite was used to ''"resist the seaside atmosphere"''. The front panel of the monument listed the names of the 51 Sandgate soldiers who had lost their lives during the war and the rear panel contained a verse composed by William Henry Lister, a member of the committee. The foundation stone was laid by the Queensland Governor
The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch of Australia. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governor performs constitutional and ceremonial funct ...
, Sir Matthew Nathan
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan (3 January 1862 – 18 April 1939) was a British soldier and colonial administrator, who variously served as the Governor of Sierra Leone, Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Natal and Quee ...
, on 14 July 1923 and the completed memorial was unveiled by the Governor on 24 February 1924.
The monument was built by Messrs. Lowther and Sons. This was an early Brisbane masonry firm, established in the 1880s by John Lowther. The Lowthers became one of the largest suppliers of stone and marble in the southern hemisphere by the time of WWI. Charles Lowther served with the Australian Light Horse
Australian Light Horse were mounted troops with characteristics of both cavalry and mounted infantry, who served in the Second Boer War and World War I. During the inter-war years, a number of regiments were raised as part of Australia's part-t ...
in Palestine during the war. After his return in 1919, he executed war memorials for the family firm. Notable memorials built by the firm include the Digger at Blackbutt (1920) and the obelisk at Goodna
Goodna is a suburb on the eastern edge of the City of Ipswich in Queensland, Australia. In the , Goodna had a population of 10,461 people.
Geography
Goodna is from the Brisbane central business district, being just outside the Brisbane City ...
.[
The extant concrete posts and chain surrounding the monument were erected in 1931 to replace a pre-existing wooden fence. Subsequently, to the unveiling of the monument in 1924, the names of Sandgate residents killed in ]WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Malaya, Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
and Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
were added to the monument.[
A memorial site for the Niuean Anzacs WW1 was unveiled in the Memorial Park on Anzac Day 2015. This is the first known ]Pacific Island
Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...
memorial site of its kind in Australia, and the first in the world for the Niuean people outside of their island.
The park that forms the setting for the monument contains a large small-leafed fig that reputedly was a popular meeting place. The grandsons of Hezekiah Shepherd, said to have been an inspector and overseer of works with the then Sandgate Municipal Council, claim that he planted the tree in the early 1880s and built a seat (no longer extant) under it. The rotunda in the park was built during the ''"Australia Remembers"'' commemorations in 1995.[
]
Description
Sandgate War Memorial Park is a small island of parkland bounded by Seymour Street, Bowser Parade and Brighton Road. The memorial and surrounding gardens constitute an integrated and contained landscape within the island and provide a verdant forecourt to the former Sandgate Post Office
Sandgate Post Office is a heritage-listed former post office at 1 Bowser Parade, Sandgate, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed in the office of the Queensland Colonial Architect and built from 1886 to 1887. It is also know ...
and the former Sandgate Town Hall
Sandgate Town Hall is a heritage-listed town hall at 5 Brighton Road, Sandgate, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Thomas Ramsay Hall and built from 1911 to 1912 by John Gemmell. It was added to the Queensland Herita ...
.[
The monument, a cenotaph form reminiscent of the Lutyens' Cenotaph (]Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...
, London), is the central focus of the park. Constructed from coursed pale grey quarry-faced granite, the monument is approximately in plan, rising to a height of about from a concrete plinth
A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...
measuring about . A band of dressed and polished granite forms a collar to the stepped crown of the cenotaph. A low protective painted metal rail is erected to the perimeter of the plinth. Within this protective fence stand decorative bollards linked by metal chains. Plaques to the long sides of the monument list those from the Sandgate district who fell in WWI, WWII and the conflicts in Malaya, Korea and Vietnam. A verse is inscribed to the obverse side:''"They died, and yet in memory shall they live, That we may know the worth of sacrifice, Know that their death is freedom's cause, Stands as a beacon light to point the way To paths of peace"''.
A large metal utility box located near a path to the north east of the memorial and a recently constructed wooden rotunda in a corner of the park are not considered to be culturally significant.[
The park also contains a green painted metal ]drinking fountain
A drinking fountain, also called a water fountain or water bubbler, is a fountain designed to provide drinking water. It consists of a basin with either continuously running water or a tap. The drinker bends down to the stream of water and s ...
. Concrete paths across the island converge on the monument. The park contains mature palms, shade trees and decorative planted beds and hedges.[
]
Heritage listing
Sandgate War Memorial Park was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register
The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. A ...
on 3 October 2005 having satisfied the following criteria.[
The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.
The Sandgate War Memorial Park is important in demonstrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history, being associated with the national outpouring of grief at the death of 60,000 Australians during WWI. During an era of strong and widespread ]Australian patriotism
Australian patriotism is patriotism involving cultural attachment of Australians to Australia as their homeland. Australian patriotism has been identified by some as distinct from Australian nationalism because of the emphasis of Australian patr ...
and nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
most Queensland communities erected a public memorial to honour local participation in the war. Each monument is a unique historical documentary record.[
The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.
The memorial is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its class of cultural places, being a substantial and highly intact commemorative structure erected as a tangible and enduring place of memory to act as a focus for public mourning in the absence of graves. This is achieved through the use of appropriate materials and design elements.][
The place is important because of its aesthetic significance.
The memorial and surrounding park make a significant aesthetic contribution to the townscape of Sandgate. The park constitutes an integrated and contained landscape that provides a verdant forecourt to the Sandgate Post Office and the former Sandgate Town Hall.][
The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.
The memorial and park are of social and spiritual significance for the local community, having a strong and continuing association with the community as evidence of the impact of a major historical event and as the focus for annual remembrance of that event in local Anzac Day commemorative ceremonies.][
The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.
The memorial is significant as an example of the work of prominent Brisbane architect, G. G. Prentice and the Brisbane masonry firm Lowther and Sons.][
]
References
Attribution
External links
{{Commons category-inline, Sandgate War Memorial Park
Queensland Heritage Register
Sandgate, Queensland
World War I memorials in Queensland
Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register
World War II memorials in Queensland
Korean War memorials in Queensland
Vietnam War memorials in Queensland
Malayan Emergency memorials in Queensland
Parks in Brisbane