ANZAC Avenue Print Page

ANZAC Avenue commemorates those from the district who served in World War One. The avenue runs along the Esplanade from Beckwith Street bridge, Ivan Jack Drive and Morrow Street alongside the Victory Memorial Gardens. Restoration of the Avenue was commenced in 2009.

Plaques are set into the ground, and the Wagga Wagga Kangaroo March information board is fixed on a pole in the garden. 

Wagga Wagga City Council, with City Partnership foundation member Wagga RSL Club, commenced a project in 2009 to restore the historic 'Anzac Avenue' in preparation for the 100th Anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli in 2015.

Stage One of the project in 2009 saw the removal and replacement of existing aged and dying poplars along The Esplanade, from the Beckwith Street bridge to Ivan Jack Drive.

Stage Two of the project in 2010 involved removing and replacing the remaining 37 existing Polar trees along Ivan Jack Drive and Morrow Street, alongside the Victory Memorial Gardens.

Four trees, grafted from the original Poplar trees planted in Wagga in 1932, will be planted to form an entranceway at either end of the avenue. By forming an entranceway, Council is keeping alive the history of the current poplars.
Source: Wagga City Council, Victory Memorial Gardens.

The Wagga sub-branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia has been as active as any in its public-spirited work. Quietly, unostentatiously, it has lately been adding to the beauty of the Memorial Gardens and extending them towards Beckwith-street. The erection of the fernery is largely due to its efforts, as is also the removal of the fence around the gardens and the construction of the kerbing. The beautiful avenue of poplars extending from Baylis-street to Beckwith-street, now called Diggers' Avenue, was planted by the Wagga sub-branch. The Wagga Municipal Council has expressed its keen appreciation of this added ornament to the town which is the delight of citizens and the admiration of visitors. Altogether the branch has handed £140 to the council to provide relief work for returned soldiers, thus lifting from the community a burden which should rightly belong to it. The work of the Legacy Club, behind the scenes, has been just as praiseworthy.
Excerpt from Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga), 26 July 1935.

In future the avenue of poplars extending along the southern boundary of the Victory Memorial Gardens to Beckwith Street Bridge will be known as Anzac Avenue. The City Council made this decision last night, in response to further representations from the Wagga sub-branch of the RSL. The wording 'Anzac Avenue' will be inscribed in a concrete footpath slab and laid down at the eastern end of the avenue, adjacent to Baylls Street, and in a suitable and conspicuous position at the avenue's western end near Beckwlth Street Bridge. The city engineer will be instructed to arrange for the con struction of the slabs with the wording indicated. 
Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga), 11 March 1950.

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