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Tomb of the Unknown SoldierPrint Page Print this page

18-March-2015
18-March-2015

Photographs supplied by Diane Watson / Peter F. Williams / Russell Byers

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents all Australians killed in war. To mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War One, the body of an unknown Australian soldier was recovered from Adelaide Cemetery near Villers-Bretonneaux in France and transported to Australia.

The original unknown soldier was entombed in Westminster Abbey in London on 11 November 1920. Plans for an Australian unknown soldier were first put forward in the 1920s but it was not until 1993 that an unknown Australian was at last brought home.

After lying in state in King`s Hall in Parliament House, he was interred in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial on 11 November 1993. The unknown Australian soldier was buried in a Tasmanian blackwood coffin with a slouch hat and a sprig of wattle, and soil from the Pozieres battlefield was scattered in his tomb. The unknown soldier represents all Australians who have been killed in war.

Location

Address:Fairbairn & Limestone Avenues, Hall of Memory, Australian War Memorial, Campbell, 2612
State:ACT
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -35.280568
Long: 149.148978
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:Conflict
Sub-Theme:Multiple
Designer:Tonkin Zulaikha Harford (architects) Pillars -Janet Lawrence (artist), Peter Tonkin

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Thursday 11th November, 1993
Front Inscription

An Unknown Australian Soldier killed in the war of 1914 - 1918

He is all of them and he is one of us

 

 

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au