In 1923 they put up a sign in the paddock that was The Domain declaring the site for a National War Memorial.
After a world wide competition, Victorian returned soldiers, Philip Hudson and James Wardrop got the job. Like good architecture students you can see they were very influenced by classical Greek monuments.
| Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance, Mr Hudson and Mr Wardrop, 1927-34 |
The marble was quarried from Orbost and the granite from Tynong in Gippsland. Silvery and durable. Black marble for the columns in the inner shrine was sourced from Buchan.
The architects had previously designed the St Kilda War Memorial Hall in 1923. Also schools and chapels. In 1937 Wardrop designed the wonderful Alkira House at 18 Queen Street.
| Tony Clark, Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance (my title), c 1980s |
The only thing missing from Tony Clark’s painting of the Shrine of Remembrance are a few goats. In the ancient sacro-idyllic style Clark positions the monument into an imaginary landscape. It’s like he is giving the young building some cultural relevance.
As he said in an 2011 interview, “Because the cultural aspect of landscape seemed to have been ignored, as a young artist I was inclined to stress its cultural and artificial aspects to the point that I wasn’t very interested in the natural ones.”
Julia Ritson
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