The memorial was built in the mid-1930s and has a blocky “reaching to the skies” art deco look . This was a surprise. It’s not huge; the top floor is mostly a space for silent contemplation and the names of various battles and locations where ANZAC forces operated during World War I were carved into the walls. The docents were both talkative and informative. The ground floor had very interesting exhibit about the royal Australian Navy (RAN) with photos from veterans, lots of ships’ crests, and some uniforms.
The lower floor, which I ran out of time for, was fascinating. I needed another hour there and will try to go back. They have a very large exhibit of Australian forces throughout the ages up to current times; they were involved in places I never would’ve thought of like Fiji, what looks like desert storm, and desert locations. Lots of uniforms with explanations; stories of individuals; medals; a great photo video section of the forces in action from the 1960s forward. I had to hurry through this section. I was about to head out because they were closing in 10 minutes and realized I had missed probably one of the most significant aspects of the memorial – the circular area of the lower floor contained samples of soil from every Australian town where Australian military who had died during World War I lived. The circle is filled with narrow marble slabs engraved with the name of the town and set into the marble is a clear circular disc maybe 3 inches wide by 1 inch deep that contains the soil. And they’re in alphabetic order. The soil differences in color, graininess, etc. was really interesting. Then in the center of the room on the floor was a large circle with the names of battle locations where Australians died and a soil sample from each of them; some of them have no soil, and the docent explained that was because the governments of those countries said (in essence) “you invaded us, we didn’t ask you here, our people died, and we are not giving you any soil (Vietnam and Afghanistan)”. I would’ve liked to spend more time there, so will try to get back.