Sutherland Shire’s unique memorial to Australian service personnel and their families, the Woronora Military Memorial has been enhanced by a special contribution by shire school children.
Located at Woronora Memorial Park, the memorial was officially opened by NSW Governor David Hurley in August, 2015 on the centenary of the Battle of Lone Pine.
At the official opening in 2015, students from St Patrick’s Catholic Primary school at Sutherland created 2,277 symbolic crosses with personal messages for those Australian soldiers killed, wounded or taken prisoner at Lone Pine.
The crosses were placed around the memorial at the official opening in 2015, and were a visual representation of staggering loss of life during the short period of battle.
The message from the children of our nation, represented by St Patrick’s Primary School was “We will remember them. Lest We Forget”
The majority of those 2,277 crosses have now been encased in granite and glass and have just been installed within the memorial itself, to symbolise the first lines of the poetry from WW1: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row…”
A special glass panel allows visitors t view some of these special crosses made by those children that are now contained within the granite memorial.
This week, children from St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, led by principal Phillip Tax, visited the site while Father John Knight conducted an official blessing of this new installation.
Graham Boyd, chief executive officer for the Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust in NSW has said he was motivated to install the memorial after attending a state funeral at Woronora Memorial Park for an Army Commando killed in Afghanistan and watching his children releasing doves.
He wanted them and other families to have a place to come to in the future and know that the community supported them and shared in their loss.
The crosses left by the school children at the official opening have been sealed and have become the newest part of the ongoing story that for generations yet to come will recount and end with, “We will remember them. Lest We Forget.”