The Victory Memorial Gardens’ eternal flame and honour board’s restoration is in limbo following WWCC’s decision to defer funding. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Restoration of one of Wagga’s most iconic landmarks, the Wagga Wagga Eternal Flame Memorial, will have to wait a little longer following Wagga Wagga City Council’s (WWCC) decision to defer acceptance of a $147,000 grant.
Despite the money being on the table and the local RSL sub-Branch approving designs, WWCC chose to put off acceptance of the funding in hopes of ensuring “the works proposed are consistent with the long-term conservation of the memorial”.
WWCC will only have a short period to receive a report about the site restoration, with a response to the funding needing to be made by midnight on 22 April.
General manager Peter Thompson said he was hopeful councillors would accept the grant at the next council meeting which will conclude only hours before the deadline.
“The deadline to accept the grant is midnight on the date of the next council meeting; we will endeavour to get an extension of that time if the councillors accept the grant,” he said.
“We can obviously sign that after the council meeting; if they don’t, or if there’s another unforeseen outcome from the council meeting, then it would be nice to know that we can secure the grant, and obviously, if they’re not prepared to extend that grant, that’s a very material piece of information to make the councillors aware of in the next council meeting.”
Mr Thompson said the decision to defer was made to ensure the heritage-listed site’s long-term future would be protected.
“The deferral was about finding the best way to respond to the concern expressed in the debate [during the previous council meeting] which was that we needed an expert to provide a report on the conservation of that heritage item, to ensure that the works that are undertaken support the long-term conservation of that heritage,” he said.
“There was a concern raised by councillors in debate that they wanted an expert report into what is the appropriate conservation regime for that memorial. And whilst that particular concern was not endorsed by other councillors and wasn’t adopted, councillors are expecting us to come back and say that the original works that have been proposed completely aligned with the long-term conservation of that asset.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to come back and convince the councillors that the work that’s proposed is completely aligned with the long-term conservation of the memorial, and we can get on with the work that the RSL sub-Branch wants us to do.”
If approved before the deadline, WWCC has agreed that work will begin following this year’s ANZAC Day service and before Remembrance Day on 11 November.
