This weekend war memorials across the nation will be the focus of ANZAC remembrance services. From tiny outback hamlets to the capital cities, the solemn strains of the Last Post will sound as wreaths are laid and heads bowed in contemplation of wartime loss. There are about 1,500 memorials to the First World War across the country - so many that Australia has been called a "nation of small town memorials".
Memorials vary greatly in scale and scope. The one that everyone always remembers of course is the little digger on the pedestal. Sometimes with arms reversed and head bowed, sometimes standing erect with his rifle by his side, but then they ranged through a whole variety often depending on the wealth of the district, to really quite elaborate and beautiful bronze statues. Sometimes very martial in their character, soldiers with bayonets fixed and charging, sometimes fairly poignant, rescuing a wounded mate and so on. So they run the whole gamut of those things, but as well as those there are very simple, common memorials in the form of the simple little obelisk; a broken column on a pedestal with the names around the base - very poignant, simple little memorial and that's the most common feature.
A lot of the little diggers that people have come to associate with the Australian soldier so strongly were actually made in Italy. They were almost mass-produced by Italian stone masons and even Italian stone masons in this country.
The conspicuous feature in all the little country towns will always remain those simple memorials that were erected after the First World War. It's a strange paradox, the further we go back in time the stronger the legend appears to become.
LEST WE FORGET.
