Newcastle War Memorial Cultural CentrePrint Page

Newcastle War Memorial Cultural Centre was erected to commemorate those from the Newcastle district who served in both World Wars.

The Newcastle War Memorial Cultural Centre was originally the home of the city’s public library, art gallery and conservatorium of music. It was opened in October 1957. The Cultural Centre was designed to be a war memorial of architectural beauty and of practical cultural use to the community.

The suggestion by Mr. Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and director of the Conservatorium, that Sydney's war memorial should take the form of a music centre or opera house has been anticipated. Newcastle thought of the idea first, and is on the way to achieving its objective. Newcastle's scheme will cost £200,000, and already the public has subscribed £40,000. It will include a public library on the lines of the one in Sydney, but smaller; a conservatorium section with an auditorium to seat 2,000; a smaller hall for 300 or 400; studios for the teaching of all forms of music, vocal and instrumental; and an art gallery.  Mr. Mark Howarth, honorary secretary of the organising committee, says there is such a demand for a conservatorium that it is proposed, as soon as some vacant buildings become available on the site which is being reclaimed, to set up a temporary conservatorium. This matter, he says, has already been discussed with the Conservatorium authorities in Sydney, who have promised full assistance, and also with the Minister for Education, Mr. Heffron.

Facing the Newcastle City Hall across a park, the projected memorial building is planned for high ground at present being resumed by the Greater Newcastle Council. The Government has already announced its intention to erect a building on the east of the park. This building will harmonise architecturally with the City Hall and the war memorial in forming a civic square. The plans include: The housing of the Pope collection of books and pictures, worth many thousands of pounds, now temporarily placed in the reading-room of the Newcastle School of Arts, and a reading-room, stack-room, and children's section large enough for 250,000 volumes; Provision in the auditorium for a pipe organ, and full stage equipment for stage plays and ballet; Two or more floors in the art gallery devoted to a permanent collection of about 500 pictures; accommodation for the teaching of art and sculpture. In the main section of the building will be a memorial foyer in which the names of the men and women in whose memory the building has been erected.

The whole, in the committee's view, will be not only a memorial to the fallen, but will ensure that their children and descendants will have opportunities for the highest forms of education and culture. Finance is being raised by a fund, opened by the. Mayor, Alderman H. D. Quinlan, and by a quota scheme by which employees in industries, offices, and shops, together with school children, will contribute on a per capita basis. Trade unions are helping by organising workers to contribute small sums, such as 3d a week, until each has built up a subscription of £1 or so.
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 30 July 1947. 

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