The numbers behind the Australian War Memorial’s $550 million upgrade are staggering.
Fifty Olympic-sized swimming pools of dirt have been excavated from the front, back and sides of the building in Canberra.
The design of the new Anzac Hall took four years, curating pieces for the museum took three years, the building process was two years and the installation of the galleries took one year.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow
Director Matt Anderson, however, told 7NEWS podcast The Issue that one number matters above all.
“So, they’re the major figures, but for me, the most important number is the stories of 100,000 veterans that we’ve created,” he said.
“That’s the most important number for me; the new stories we’ll tell, and the answer to that question is about 100,000.”
Anzac Hall open
The new Anzac Hall is now open to the public ahead of Anzac Day this weekend.
It will officially be opened in June. Work is still underway to have the new Afghanistan galley ready by then.
Anderson says the process has been a case of history unfolding in real time.
The idea to build the new Anzac Hall began in 2018 when Australia still had troops in Afghanistan.
“Forget the official histories being written, we were still in Afghanistan: soldiers, sailors and aviators in harm’s way,” Anderson told The Issue.
“So to conceive of the need to build the places that would tell their stories while they’re still there is, I think, very ambitious, but justifiably so.
A Boeing CH-47 Chinook is one of the highlights of the new Anzac Hall. Credit: MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE
“It’s an acknowledgment that the men and the women who served. When you think about Afghanistan, some people went to Afghanistan once and they went in 2001. They have effectively waited a quarter of a century to have their stories told. Now they will.”
Highlights of the Anzac Hall include a Chinook helicopter that flew in Afghanistan, and the famous G-for-George Lancaster bomber aircraft from World War II.
Controversial galleries will be built next
The next galleries to be built under the $550 million upgrade will be the most controversial.
Planning will soon start for pre-1914 exhibits which will include the Boer War in South Africa and Frontier Wars in Australia (conflicts between settlers and First Nations peoples).
The 480sqm of new displays will be situated downstairs, below the Pool of Reflection.
An F/A-18 Hornet fighter is seen as part of an exhibition in the newly opened Anzac Hall. Credit: MICK TSIKAS/AAPIMAGE
Anderson says a national consultation process will be undertaken, including with Indigenous Australians.
“Councillors directed that the Memorial has a broader and deeper depiction of frontier wars in our galleries than we used to,” Anderson told The Issue.
“We’ve had issues relating to frontier wars in our galleries since the mid-late 80s, but we can do better than we did in the past — we know more than we did then.
“It goes to imperialism, it goes to resistance, they’re the stories we’ll seek to tell, but we haven’t even started the process of curating those.”
For more of The Issue podcast you can watch on YouTube or download the Listnr app.
Lifeline offers free 24/7 counselling via phone, online chat, and video to anyone feeling suicidal, bereaved by suicide or worried about someone else. Call 1300 659 467.
Ben Roberts-Smith reports to police under strict bail conditions
1 min read
What every parent should know before their next grocery shop
1 min read
