RAA Liaison Letter 2024 - 2025 Edition

RAA Liaison Letter 2024 / 2025 Edition 4 Royal Australian Artillery National Memorial Extension Project F ACT SHEET ( AS AT 27 F EB 25) Background The Royal Australian Artillery National Memorial (RAANM or Memorial) stands atop Mount Pleasant in the grounds of the Royal Military College-Duntroon, Canberra. It was officially dedicated and opened by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the 9th of March 1977, as part of her Silver Jubilee visit to Australia. It recognises the service of Australian Gunners from the Sudan to South Vietnam, but there is currently no option to add more recent campaigns and operations without modifying the existing layout. Aim The aim is to ensure the Memorial remains a relevant place of commemoration and connection for all Gunners, past, present and future. The project team has been tasked with extending the Memorial to recognise the service of Australian Gunners in campaigns and operations since South Vietnam. Current planning includes plaques for Somalia, Peace Operations, East Timor / Timor Leste, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Domestic Operations. The design will also incorporate space for future campaigns and operations. The Team A small team, led by Lieutenant Colonel Matt White as the Project Manager, assisted by Colonel Charles Weller and Captain Andi Dimmock and Major (Retd) Darryl Kelly is being directed and guided by Major General (Retd) Michael Crane DSC and Bar, AM, in his capacity as the RC’s representative for the project. The team is also receiving invaluable advice from the Royal Australian Artillery Historical Company (RAAHC), and the Australian Artillery Association, and benefitting from their experience, creative support and the provision of essential seed funding. In addition, the Royal Australian Engineers is supporting the project through the provision of one of its Army Reserve Specialist Service Officer architects, and an RAE engineering undergraduate at UNSW to undertake a thesis based on the technical aspects of the Memorial extension. Timeline The project launch on St Barbara’s Day, 4th December 2024, marked the start of a key phase of Memorial project including design selection, detailed planning, ACT Government endorsement and NCA approvals, marketing and communications, and, most importantly, fundraising. There will be milestones and decision points along the way, but the plan is to have everything in place for a decision in early 2026 on the selected design, and associated tender process and contract arrangements, for construction to commence in July 2026. The target is to complete the extension of the memorial by 2027 to align with the memorial’s 50th anniversary year. Fundraising The team must raise the necessary capital to fund the costs associated with extending the Memorial. Initial ROM cost estimates indicate this could be approximately $500k. The project will focus on fundraising opportunities across the RAA community (serving and retired, Regulars and Reserves), their families, friends and colleagues. They will also be exploring every opportunity to raise capital by securing support from Defence Industry, corporations, businesses and the general public. In addition, the project will apply for financial support via relevant public grants from sources such as the DVA’s ‘Salute their Service’ fund. The project would be extremely grateful for any support in these endeavours. If you would like to assist, please use the EFT information or QR code (see below) or follow the links via the RAAHC or AAA websites (see the Marketing / Communications paragraph below). Marketing / Communications There will be lots of different products over various media and social platforms to keep everyone informed as the project progresses, so please look out and sign up for them. •The Memorial website can be accessed via a link on the RAAHC website (www.artilleryhistory.org ) and the AAA website (www.australianartilleryassociation.org ). Both these organisations, and the Royal Australian Artillery, also have a Facebook page so please sign up for those to keep updated.