MENAI should have its first Anzac memorial in time for the centenary of the Gallipoli landing in 2015.
A location has been selected in Parc Menai and a concept design drawn up. Now it is up to the community to rally and help raise the $55,000 needed to build the memorial.
Menai and Sutherland Districts Chamber of Commerce president Andrew Manson is behind the campaign to build Menai's first Anzac memorial after he was inspired by the Anzac dawn service at Miranda RSL Club.
"I went to the Miranda dawn service last year and thought, 'Why should Menai residents go all that way to take part when we could have our own?'," Mr Manson said.
"There are 30,000 people living in the Menai district, which is bigger than most country towns and yet we have never had our own Anzac memorial.
"I marched on Anzac Day as a kid growing up in Cooma, which has only 8000 people, and they have a wonderful service and memorial."
The memorial — a simple sandstone wall with the words Lest We Forget, and a number of flagpoles — will be in front of the park's rotunda and aligned with the slate archway donated to Menai by the citizens of Bangor, Wales.
The project has the full support of Sutherland Shire Council. Deputy mayor Carmelo Pesce said it was important that the community got behind the campaign.
"We need to understand our history, particularly as we are coming up to the 100th anniversary of Anzac," Cr Pesce said.
Mr Manson believes a Menai memorial would get a good roll-up for the Anzac Day dawn service.
"We have lost three commandos in Afghanistan that lived in the Menai area," he said. "There is also a lot of Defence housing in the area and the Vietnam veterans are very active, particularly through their motorcycle club.
"The memorial will honour those who served and those who stayed at home, the people who made blankets and supplies, the families who stayed behind. I want it to encompass the whole community.
"Most of this area has been built since 1982. No one here lived through the world wars. It is a fairly young area and we should have something for them to remember the Anzac story.
"My desire is to eventually have an Anzac Day march up Allison Crescent or Menai Road that would include the whole community; the Rural Fire Service, the ambos, the Vietnam veterans motorcycle club and school kids; not just the school captains but also the kid who may have got into trouble and would now get a chance to read out a poem on Anzac Day."
Donations can be made at the council's customer service centre in Eton Street, Sutherland, or via the business chamber.
What do you think of the idea to build an Anzac Memorial at Parc Menai?
