The Victory Memorial Gardens’ Eternal Flame and Honour Board’s restoration has been confirmed by WWCC following its decision to defer funding only a few weeks earlier. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Wagga Wagga’s Eternal Flame and Honour Roll Memorial are set to receive remediation after the city council agreed to accept a $147,425 grant from the Federal Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
After deferring the funding at the last Wagga Wagga City Council ordinary meeting, councillors on Monday (28 April) accepted that the planned works to the site had adequate plans to preserve its heritage.
The council secured funding through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ Saluting Their Service Commemorative Grants Program 2024-25.
“The Eternal Flame and the Honour Rolls within the Victory Memorial Gardens are very important to the city,” the council’s manager city growth and regional assets Ben Creighton said.
“There was a lot of support from the [local RSL] Sub-branch last night, and we’re now able to tell them we can proceed with the works.
“At the moment, we’ve got moisture penetrating around the memorial wall.
“What this work will do is move the render. It will treat for moisture and salt penetration, and then essentially re-render the walls. It also allows us to do some work on the pond itself. So we’ll be pulling certain components of the pond out, resurfacing their waterproofing, and then putting it all back together.
“The original construction methods in the early ’90s essentially have allowed some moisture penetration under the render. So this work that we’ll do now will essentially remediate that and make sure that the war memorial is there for the generations to come.”
Mr Creighton said the council planned to complete the work before Remembrance Day in November.
“We’ll look to start work within the next couple of weeks and then once they commence, we’ll be looking to take about three to four months to complete,” he said.
“Given the importance of the memorials themselves, it’s just around the due diligence of the heritage aspects of the memorial.
“The Eternal Flame will be extinguished for a little while.
“Essentially, we’ll be replacing some of the pipework for the Eternal Flame, as well as the pipework from when it was originally constructed.
“It’s actually corroded and starting to have issues in terms of the corrosion. So we’ll be replacing that pipework as part of the project.”
