Freshwater Anzac Precinct

This memorial comprises a Wall of Remembrance in Jacka Park and the historic Soldiers Avenue of Honour.

The Premier and Local Member Mike Baird, former Prime Minister and Local Member, Tony Abbott, and former Mayor, Michael Regan were all involved in the project. 

Background

Source: Peter Harley, President of the Friends of Freshwater Inc., and Chair of the Soldiers Avenue of Honour Stakeholders Group:

The Soldiers Avenue of Honour in Freshwater was created by Warringah Council in 1919 when it renamed from Mathieson Street to Soldiers Avenue. It also voted a sum of money to purchase and plant trees in honour of fallen soldiers from the local area.  This was designed as a living memorial to those who died in Europe and  Turkey and did not return. With 60,000 dead, an Avenue of Honour Movement sprang up around Australia to embrace this sentiment. The bulk of these trees and those planted subsequently to mark soldiers from the Second World War, now have heritage listing as do their associated plaques and memorials.  This Avenue of Honour is now one of the last intact memorials of its kind on a suburban road. It is one of the last Avenues of Honour in metropolitan Sydney as many have succumbed to Sydney’s growth and traffic requirements.

In 1985, many of the plaques that had stood beside their allocated tree for more than sixty years, were removed and relocated to a Wall of Remembrance in nearby Jacka Park.  This park is named after Private Lesley Jacka who was killed at Gallipoli. The Wall of Remembrance contains the names of all those local service personnel who served in the First and Second World Wars.

In 2015 as part of the Centenary of Anzac Commemorations, work commenced on refurbishing both the Wall of Remembrance and the Avenue of Honour.  With government support, wall plaques were repolished to ensure readability, and the first phase of the Soldiers Avenue Refurbishment Project was implemented. This included the installation of an information plinth; footpath memorial plaques beside the relevant trees; new foot paths and street signage; and compilation of the individual and family histories of those soldiers from the local area who served in the First World War theatres of war. As part of this project, the offices of the Harbord RSL Sub-Branch, are also establishing a website and archive repository for all of the histories compiled. All of the footpath memorial plaques installed in the Soldiers Avenue of Honour will have an embedded QR code which will link back to the website.

Currently the Stakeholders Group is at Stage 2 of the Project which will continue in its current form until 2018.

Soldiers Avenue of Honour Stakeholders Group has representation from:

• Harbord RSL Sub Branch
• Harbord Literary Institute
• Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club
• Harbord Diggers Club
• Friends of Freshwater Inc
• Harbord Public School
• Warringah Family Studies Group
• Residents of Soldiers Avenue