Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00437:body:0:p19
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00437
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Character Range: 54752–57571

In 1988 the Administration Building was the first significant additional structure to be added to the AWM, allowing the transfer of administrative functions from the main Memorial building.

   Figure 2.10 Floor plans for the original galleries prior to the construction of the additional wings in the 1960s. (Source: Australian War Memorial)

 Figure 2.11 The former 'Outpost Café', shortly before its demolition. (Source: GML 2007)

    2.4   New Meanings

 The installation of the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Solider in 1993 signaled another significant evolution in the meaning of the AWM. The famous speech delivered by the then prime minister, Paul Keating, at the interment signaled that, more than ever before, the sacrifice of ordinary men and women in war was seen as crucial to national identity:11

    The Unknown Australian Soldier we inter today was one of those who by his deeds proved that real nobility and grandeur belongs not to empires and nations but to the people on whom they, in the last resort, always depend.

    That is surely at the heart of the Anzac story, the Australian legend which emerged from the war. It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of mateship and the demands of necessity.

 It has been suggested that with the interment of the Unknown Australian Soldier the meaning of the Hall of Memory has been clarified and entrenched as a national mausoleum and the heart of the AWM.12 With the growth of the importance of 'heritage' through the 1990s, memorials to war have taken on new meanings in Australian society; it has been argued that they provide a mythology or even a sacred component for the secular modern nation.13 This is reflected in a dynamic period of change and development across the AWM, mirroring the rise in the symbolic cultural importance of memorials which commemorate the sacrifice of Australians in war. From the mid-1990s to the present, the Memorial has expanded and upgraded its galleries and exhibitions and also made significant changes to its surrounding grounds. Between 1996 and 1999, the Memorial undertook Gallery Development Stage One. This included redeveloping the Second World War Galleries and Research Centre, relocating and changing the Post 1945 Galleries, the redesign and expansion of the Orientation Gallery and the creation of a temporary exhibition space. These were opened by then Prime Minister John Howard.

   This period also included the final stage of development of the Western Courtyard and Sculpture Garden. The Aircraft Hall was completed shortly after. ANZAC Hall, adjoining the rear of