Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00437:body:0:p156
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L00437
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Character Range: 504935–507726

Commonwealth indicated support for Bean's concept of a national war museum in Canberra to house the National Collection of war relics and trophies. By 1918 Bean had strengthened his vision by linking the relics and records with the creation of a memorial to those who died in the war. In this vision both the relics and records became sacred because of their association with the sacrifice of lives 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 conceived that the memorial and museum functions were philosophically and operationally inseparable and, with Gullett, they were to guide its creation and its operations over a forty year period.

The Federal Capital Territory, now the Australian Capital Territory, was created in 1911 as the site of Canberra, the Nation's Capital. Walter Burley Griffin won the international competition for the design of Canberra in 1912 and his revised plan in 1918 was Gazetted as the Official Plan. Griffin proposed a central area featuring a series of artificially modelled lake basins and a land axis extending from Mount Ainslie, through the centre of a group of government buildings and the Capital. A Canberra site for the Australian War Memorial was initially considered in about 1919. In 1923 the Commonwealth announced its intention to proceed with a national war memorial in Canberra and the chosen site was the current location, at the northern end of the land axis below Mount Ainslie. The Commonwealth also agreed to the name Australian War Memorial for the institution and in 1925 the Memorial was constituted under Commonwealth legislation.

In 1928 Griffin expressed the view that the proposed site was suitable for the memorial. The competition for the design of the memorial was conducted in 1925-26, however none of the entries received met all of the competition conditions and no winner was announced. Two of the competitors, Emil 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 recent development of the Art Deco style. The form of the building was strongly influenced by Crust's intention to incorporate a commemorative courtyard for the Roll of Honour.

Construction, which began in 1928-29 was curtailed and then postponed by the onset of the Depression. In 1934 work started again in a limited way. The builders at this time were Simmie and Company of Melbourne. The building's design was subject to many changes throughout its