Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00437:body:0:p68
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00437
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 186436–189307

future of a place it is important to consider all heritage values— both natural and cultural—as issues relating to the conservation and heritage management of cultural values that may affect the selection of appropriate conservation processes, actions and strategies for the place's natural values.4

      4.3   National and Commonwealth Heritage Values

4.3.1  National Heritage List Statement of Significance

   The following Statement of Significance is from the National Heritage citation for the 'Australian War Memorial and the Memorial Parade'.

      The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is Australia's national shrine to those Australians who lost their lives and suffered as a result of war. As such it is important to the Australian community as a whole and has special associations with veterans and their families including the Returned & Services League of Australia. These special associations are reinforced on ANZAC Day and at ceremonies specific to particular memorials on Anzac Parade.

      The AWM in its setting was a direct consequence of the First World War, one of the seminal events in Australian history. Official war correspondent, Charles Bean, believed that the war would have a strong influence on the creation of a sense of nationhood and a distinctly Australian character and identity. Bean's vision of a war memorial as a place to house the objects made sacred by their direct association with the events and sacrifice of Australians at war was embodied in the establishment of the AWM. A purpose built repository, the AWM is a place where the nature of commemoration was based on an integral relationship between the building, commemorative spaces and the collections of objects and records. This is rare in Australia and uncommon in the world. The AWM has a unique and important function in collecting and displaying objects and records of Australians' experience of war. It has the potential to yield information that will contribute to Australia's social, political and military history.

      The role of the AWM with its central location in the nation's capital is an important landmark in Australia and a popular national icon. Although the AWM was not part of the original design for Canberra, Walter Burley Griffin agreed that it would be a fitting structure for its prominent position. The surrounding landscape design, indigenous and exotic plantings and setting and sympathetic location of associated structures and the symmetry of land axis have maintained the importance of the views of the AWM and its dominance in the landscape. As the terminating building at the northern end of the land axis of Griffin's plan for Canberra, the AWM makes a major contribution to the principal views from both Parliament Houses and from Mount Ainslie. Major features of the original site include: the main building; the external fabric;