Australia has a vast number of war memorials – something in the order of 6000 across the country – displaying a phenomenal breadth of design and variation. While you may be familiar with the war memorials in your own community, however, experiencing the full range of commemorative sites would be a massive undertaking.
If you’re interested in seeing how the various parts of the country remember the fallen, however, a website in conjunction with the Australian War Memorial in Canberra is compiling a registry of all the nation’s publicly accessible places of remembrance.
It’s still a work in progress, with an open invitation for people to submit details of their own local memorials, but Places of Pride is well on the way to becoming a comprehensive record, featuring thousands of sites with photographic and anecdotal material searchable by name or location. It’s a great opportunity to see the variety of memorials provided by communities around the country, not all of them limited to plaques, statues or columns. This mural on the side of wheat silos in the Victorian town of Devenish, for example, testifies to the many inspired – and inspiring – ways Australians remember the sacrifices made by the armed forces.
Visit Places of Pride for more details here.
