CALL TO RELOCATE THE LAUNCESTON WAR MEMORIAL FROM ROYAL PARK TO TOWN POINT

Launceston Cenotaph By Rod Oliver – From Snapped: After Dark

It is long overdue for serious consideration to be given to the relocation of Launceston's War Memorial from its now compromised location at the edge of Royal Park in Paterson Street to a more prominent and appropriate site, such as the historic TOWN POINT at the junction of the Tamar and Esk Rivers.

Debate has ebbed and flowed over the years about whether the present site in Royal Park was appropriate, particularly since the construction of the Northern Outlet Road extended on from Bathurst Street and bisecting Royal park in that deep, noisy ravine, cutting off the memorial from parklands that once flowed to the river's edge.

The Examiner of August 28 1923 records the lonely dissent of Alderman Hart to the selection of the present site, that at that time had been requested to be granted by the War Memorial Committee for the erection of the memorial. Ald. Hart's objections referred to the need for a more prominent site for such an important use, comparing the obelisk design in that location as appearing as little more than "resembling a small chimney stack" that would inevitably require the removal of important trees, just so as to visible.

News a few days ago reported on the Federal's Government's expenditure of a very handsome sum to embellish the access to Hobart's War Memorial. That memorial's sitting on the prominent point extending into the Derwent River leads to my suggestion that Launceston's War Memorial ought be relocated to Town Point, our most prominent riverside juncture from where, at the nearby King's Wharf, our soldiers boarded the troop ships heading off to war via interstate training camps, having been brought up to Launceston by train from Brighton Camp and farewelled by their loved ones at the embarkment point.

Following the decision to clear the old wool stores from Town Point and the completion of the Town Point Flood Levees, this extensive space is about to be transformed into grandiose parklands, so what better, more prominent and more appropriate place historically, is there for our War Memorial , than Town Point?

A revision of the landscaping plans, already funded, could entail an impressive approach avenue, traditionally the setting for war memorials, and the Memorial, the illuminated centrepiece of all vistas from the surrounding amphitheatre of hills, at the precise junction of Launceston's three rivers.

Lionel Morrell Architect and Heritage Consultant, 41 High Street Launceston

Footnote: Trooper James Egbert Morrell, my grandfather, perished during the Great War of 1914 -1918 at Cairo, and is interred in the War Memorial Cemetery at Suez.