A NEW cenotaph will be built outside Darnum’s Memorial Hall to replace the existing one located close to the freeway.
Above: stakeholders and interested locals at the funding presentation on Monday, standing roughly where the new cenotaph will be built. Photo: author.
First published in the 24 April 2015 edition of the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen. Pick up your copy from retailers across Baw Baw today!
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The location of the existing cenotaph has been beset by noise and safety issues and is across one of the town’s busier roads from the hall.
Funding for the construction of a new cenotaph has been announced by the federal government. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs will supply the money through its Saluting Their Service grants program.
The Baw Baw Shire, in partnership with the Darnum Progress Association, will deliver the project.
The association started discussing the move about a year ago.
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Progress association secretary Joanne Watt told the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen the new location will make town events easier.
“It had been a long-standing problem that it’s a very noisy location, with Anzac Day, Australia Day and Remembrance Day and so forth being disrupted by traffic noise and making it very hard to
hear things and also making events that involve singing or music very difficult to hear” Ms Watt said.
“It was put forward that maybe nearer the hall would be better.
“It was also a safety consideration, that people at the memorial [often] want to cross the road to the hall. You’d have families and children wanting to come across.”
Ms Watt said both the council and the RSL had responded positively to the move proposition.
“They actually thought it was quite a sensible thing to have it closer to the memorial hall,” she said.
Moving the existing memorial from its present location to the hall was not an option.
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“That’s not moveable,” Ms Watt said.
“It’s actually built permanently onto the ground.
“A new memorial will be built [right outside the hall], which gives us a nice grassy area to gather on and good proximity to the hall and the facilities it provides.
The federal funding was announced at a presentation at the hall on Monday and was attended by members of the RSL, the progress association, the Darnum Memorial Hall committee, the Baw
Baw Shire Council members of the public and federal MP Russell Broadent.
The new memorial will be built on a grassy area just to the left of the memorial hall entrance. The hall’s entranceway has in the past been used as a stage for bands, singers and speakers and could be used at ceremonies in the future.
