Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00437:body:0:p16
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CEW Bean, war correspondent and historian who worked towards the founding of an Australian war museum, 1919. (Source: Australian War Memorial, ID number P04340.004)

  Figure 2.2 John Treloar, Officer-in-Charge of Australian War Records, and Director of the AWM for 32 years. (Source: Australian War Memorial, ID number 023405)

   Earlier in 1917 the Commonwealth had indicated support for Bean's concept of a national war museum in Canberra and by 1918 Bean had strengthened his vision to link the collected war relics and war records with the idea of a lasting memorial to those who had died in the war. An Australian War Museum committee was established in 1919 and Henry Gullett was appointed first Director of the Museum. Bean and Treloar believed that the memorial and museum functions were philosophically and operationally inseparable and, along with Gullett, they were to guide its creation and operation over a 40-year period.

   The existing site of the AWM may have been considered by Bean as early as 1919. Charles Daley, Secretary of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee, claims to have suggested the site where Walter Burley Griffin had located his 'Casino'—at the terminal of the main land axis of the city plan. In 1923, the Commonwealth finally announced its intention to proceed with this site for the 'Australian War Memorial' and in 1925 the AWM was constituted in Commonwealth legislation. The AWM was inaugurated on 25 April 1929 (refer to Figure 2.3).

 Figure 2.3 The inauguration of the AWM on Anzac Day 1929. (Source: National Archives of Australia, 3560, 5253)

 The competition for the design of the AWM was conducted from 1925–1926. However, none of the entries met all of the competition's conditions and no winner was announced. Two of the competitors, Emil Sodersten (formerly Sodersteen) and John Crust, were subsequently asked to develop a new collaborative design incorporating the architectural style of Sodersteen and the innovative and cost- cutting approach of Crust. The new joint Sodersteen and Crust design was presented in 1927. The architectural style of the design was primarily Sodersteen's work and drew upon the then recent development of the Art Deco style from Europe. This architectural styling became popular in Canberra in the postwar period, influencing buildings such as the Institute of Anatomy (now the National Film and Sound Archive) built in 1928–1930. The form of the AWM and design of the main Memorial building was also strongly influenced by Crust's intention to incorporate a commemorative courtyard for the Roll of Honour, along with CEW Bean's original concept for a central 'great hall', now the Hall of Memory.

 Construction at the AWM, which began in 1928–1929, was curtailed and then postponed by the onset of the Depression. In 1934, the