The Memorial Project
ABOVE: Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins in Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park, Main Street, Kangaroo Point. Marking the first 100 years of the observance of ANZAC Day and honouring the Queenslanders who gave ANZAC Day to the world from Brisbane. This is how the Memorial looked on Christmas Eve, 2017. Photo courtesy of Peter Collins.
ABOVE: Pictured after the Official Unveiling and Dedication Ceremony for Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins on 22 April 2016 were (from left) Gordon Appleby, Treasurer of the Canon Garland Memorial Society (the “CGMS”); Peter Collins, CGMS Secretary and Online Curator; the Honourable Jackie Trad MP, Deputy Premier, Minister for Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning, and Minister for Trade and Investment (and Member for South Brisbane); Serge Voloschenko OAM, Deputy Chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland Incorporated; the Honourable Paul de Jersey AO, the Administrator of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia (and Queensland Governor); and Ms Terri Butler MP, Shadow Assistant Minister for Family Violence and Child Safety, Universities and Equality (and Federal Member for Griffith). Photo courtesy of Con Drozdovskii.
THE MEMORIAL’S STORY
Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins is located at the northern end of Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park, almost on the boundary fence with beautiful St Mary’s Anglican Church.
The Church, built in 1873 by Alfred Grant to a design by Diocesan Architect, Richard G. Suter, is crafted from the porphyry rock of the surrounding cliffs.
The stone edifice replaced a timber structure built in 1849 on land closer to the river.
In 1892 a cyclone caused considerable damage to the church’s roof and bellcote.
Stone structures on the northern external aspect of the chancel indicate that the building is incomplete and a vestry or bell tower may have been intended for that site.
The Church’s pipe organ is the oldest in Queensland, dating from the early 19th Century and built by H.C. Lincoln (1789-1864).
It was imported from a London church in 1876 and further stops were added in the 1961 by the Brisbane firm, Whitehouse & Brothers.
The instrument is now maintained by Pierce Pipe Organs and plans are afoot for its complete restoration at some future date.
ABOVE: Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins has been well signposted by Brisbane City Council along Main Street, Kangaroo Point. CGMS Secretary and Online Curator, Peter Collins, inspects the one located just south of The Cliffs Cafe. Photo courtesy of Michelle Collins.
The adjacent Parish Hall was built in 1879 but has been substantially modernised.
The Rectory, designed by Diocesan Architect, John Hingeston Buckeridge, was completed in 1889.
St Mary’s Church was patronised by the governors when they resided at Old Government House, sited just across the Brisbane River in the grounds of the present Queensland University of Technology.
It has always been the naval chapel in Queensland and was once connected by stairs with the Naval Stores below the quarry face.
The Warriors’ Chapel, dedicated in 1950, contains a memorial to those who died on HMAS Voyager in 1964.
Following the death in 1926 of former Rector and First AIF volunteer Chaplain Lieutenant-Colonel, the Reverend William Maitland Woods MBE, a bell tower (separate to the church building) was erected to his memory.
The belltower is dedicated to Padre Woods on a plaque and by inscriptions engraved on the bells.
ABOVE: A plaque dedicated to the memory of the First AIF volunteer Chaplain Lieutenant-Colonel, the Reverend William Maitland Woods MBE, former Rector of Kangaroo Point Anglican Parish, is located in the church grounds, along with a bell tower erected in his memory. Padre Woods was a long-time friend of Canon Garland. Photo courtesy of Peter Collins.
KANGAROO POINT CLIFFS PARK
This is a very scenic park providing exceptional views of the City of Brisbane and across to South Bank.
Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins was designed and built of porphyry stone and blends in with the similar material used to in the Church’s construction.
Brisbane City Council has since installed sign-posting so visitors can find the Memorial within the park.
The Society (and now the Interest Group) hopes the Memorial, this website, our ongoing social media campaign and the enthusiasm our supporters’ networks will increase community awareness about Canon Garland’s contributions to the nation and the world.
The Centenary of World War I, ANZAC Day and the Centenary of Armistice Day have provided us with opportunities to more prominently engage with the local community to raise awareness about Canon Garland’s life of service and his significant contributions to the commemoration of The Fallen of the Great War.
HERITAGE TRAILS
The Society (and now the Interest Group) will work with the local community to develop a Heritage Trail, linked with other walking trails across the Kangaroo Point, Mowbray Park and Woolloongabba precincts.
It is hoped that we will be able generate guides that will provide visitors with a roadmap to the major attractions (including the Memorial) and connections to the CBD as well as local transport arrangements.
The links following identify the current trails. The Woolloongabba Business Association is playing a major role in this development.
Many places in Brisbane have associations with Canon Garland’s career between the late 1890s until his death at the age of 75 at Red Hill, on 9 October 1939.
- Canon Garland Place and Tomb, Toowong Cemetery
- The St Barnabas’ Church Soldiers’ Memorial Chapel and Gardens, St Barnabas’ Place, Red Hill, Brisbane
- The Holy Trinity Church, Hawthorne Street, Woolloongabba
- St John’s Cathedral, Ann Street Brisbane
- The Garland, St George’s Hostel and Apartment Tower, Rainbow Bay, Gold Coast, Queensland
ABOVE: An early mock-up of the design. Original artwork, dated 7 May 2015, reproduced here with the kind permission of Dr Rhyl K. Hinwood AM.
ABOVE: A 2016 artist’s impression of how a “column-style/cairn option” in the proposed site in the grounds of Woolloongabba’s Holy Trinity Anglican Church might have appeared. Graphic design courtesy of Oliver Collins.
ABOVE: The “column-style/cairn option” imagined at sunset. Graphic design courtesy of Oliver Collins.
ABOVE: An early schematic of how the Canon Garland Memorial Society imagined the proposed “Garland Memorial” might look like. Graphic design courtesy of Ross Hielscher.
ABOVE: An artist’s impression of how a “column-style/cairn option” for the Memorial might look if Council permission to built in the middle of Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park was given. Graphic design courtesy of Oliver Collins.
ABOVE: Dr Hinwood pictured with the mould for her wreath design at the foundry. Photo courtesy of Ross Hielscher.
ABOVE: The Memorial was translated from a cairn and plinth motif to a “wall-like” structure featuring three bronze plaques, once a new home at Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park was offered by Brisbane City Council. The proposed site abutted the fence line beside historic St Mary’s Anglican Church. This design concept drawing, dated 30 January 2016, is reproduced here with the kind permission of Dr Hinwood.
ABOVE: CGMS Events Co-ordinator, Con Drozdovskii (at right), is pictured in front of Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins in Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park, with CGMS Vice-President, Ross Hielscher, and the artist who designed the Memorial, Dr Hinwood.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins was officially unveiled, dedicated and handover to the People of the City of Brisbane at Brisbane’s Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park, Kangaroo Point, on 22 April 2016.
After some three years of planning, designing and fundraising, Canon Garland Memorial Society Incorporated invited some 150 of Queensland’s ranking officers of the Australian Defence Force, honorary consular officials, religious leaders, parliamentary representatives, both State and Commonwealth, media, sponsors and heads of numerous veteran community help organisations to witness the Administrator of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, His Excellency The Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, reveal the stunning Memorial.
After a very moving prayer, the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall, blessed the Memorial and Canon Garland Memorial Society Incorporated (the “CGMS”) President, Dr William Glasson AO, invited Councillor Peter Matic – standing in for the Lord Mayor of Brisbane City Council, Councillor the Right Honourable Graham Quirk – to formally accept it on behalf of the People of Brisbane.
ARCHBISHOP’S BLESSING
His Grace, Dr Aspinall, intoned the following prayer of blessing for the Memorial. CGMS acknowledges Dr Aspinall’s kind permission to reproduce his words:
We gather today in gratitude for the life and ministry The Reverend Canon David John Garland and to dedicate this Memorial in his honour.
Let us pray.
God of all creation, who calls your people to live in peace with justice:
We give thanks for the life and service of Canon David John Garland.
Following his example we remember with thanksgiving the men and women in our Armed Forces who have fallen in the course of duty, and pray you to bring comfort to all those left behind in every generation.
We join our prayers with those of Canon Garland for an end to scourge of war and for the maintenance of a just and peaceful world.
We pray too that Canon Garland’s spirit of ecumenism – including people of all faiths in the observance of ANZAC Day – will endure in the life of our nation.
Sustain us and all people in faith and hope until your will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
Hear us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Now in the faith of Jesus Christ we dedicate this memorial in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Strengthen our hearts, and hands, and minds, O Lord,
to work together for peace;
to see you in one another;
and to seek your kingdom above all things;
that your will may be done
and your kingdom come,
through Jesus Christ,
the Lord of lords and King of kings. Amen.
God grant to the living grace,
to the departed rest,
to the Church, the Queen,
to the Commonwealth and all the world, peace and concord;
and the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always. Amen.
LORD MAYOR’S MESSAGE
After the blessing, CGMS President, Dr Bill Glasson AO, called on Cr Peter Matic, representing the Lord Mayor of the City of Brisbane, Councillor the Right Honourable Graham Quirk, to officially receive the Memorial on behalf of the People of the City of Brisbane.
CGMS acknowledges the Lord Mayor’s kind permission to reproduce the following message read out by Cr Matic:
CANON GARLAND PLACE
The turning point which gave the CGMS Committee encouragement to forge ahead with plans to create Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins was when the administration of Brisbane Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk, officially renamed the entrance area at Toowong Cemetery, “Canon Garland Place”.
Cr Quirk, on 5 November 2015, held a Media Conference to announce new lawn in honour of Canon David Garland.
He said the lawn highlighted the importance of Canon Garland’s contributions to Australian society, with his proposal to honour fallen troops, the start of what is now a national tradition.
“Canon David Garland worked as a chaplain at the Enoggera Army Barracks during World War I and in the wake of climbing casualties from the war; Garland proposed a national day to honour the sacrifice of fallen soldiers in the Gallipoli landings,” Cr Quirk explained.
“Garland rallied the local community and in 1916, the ANZAC Day Commemorative Committee of Queensland was established, with Garland serving as its secretary.
ABOVE: Canon Garland Memorial Society Vice-President, Ross Hielscher, is congratulated by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Cr Graham Quirk, as (right) Paddington Ward representative, Cr Peter Matic, and (left) Wishart Ward representative, Cr Krista Adams, look on. News crews from Seven News, National Nine News, Network Ten News and ABC-TV News were also in attendance to cover this Thursday morning, 5 November 2015 event. Cr Quirk is standing in front of the newly-unveiled “Canon Garland Place” storyboard. Photo courtesy of Peter Collins.
“Garland created the framework for ANZAC Day commemorative services and worked tirelessly to gain military, religious, political, governmental, business and general community acceptance.
“In 1916, ANZAC Day was commemorated on 25th day of April for the first time and was marked by a wide variety of ceremonies and services in Australia, a march through London, and a sports day in the Australian camp in Egypt.
Cr Quirk said the new lawn was delivered in partnership with local groups, including Friends of Toowong Cemetery, the Canon Garland Memorial Society and Brisbane Ghost Tours and would commemorate Australia’s fallen heroes.
“The location of Canon Garland Place bears great historical significance, with the space being the focus of Anzac Day commemorations until the completion of Queensland’s National Anzac Memorial, Anzac Square, in 1930,” Cr Quirk said.
“The lawn is located adjacent to ‘The Cross of Sacrifice’ and ‘The Stone of Remembrance’ which were unveiled in 1924, and funded through fundraising activities which Canon Garland established.
ABOVE: The wording on the storyboard sign that was erected in Canon Garland Place. CGMS Secretary, Peter Collins, came up with the final form of words.
“Works have involved turfing the lawn, installing seating, new pathways and a commemorative storyboard plaque about Canon David Garland for residents and visitors to enjoy.”
A LOVELY DAY
Below are some images from a most moving and pleasant event.
ABOVE: His Excellency, the Administrator of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC QC, pulls the drawstring to officially unveil Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins on 22 April 2016. Photo courtesy of Peter Collins.
ABOVE: His Grace, the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall AO, blesses the Memorial. Photo courtesy of Peter Collins.
ABOVE: Close-up detail of the completed and officially unveiled Canon Garland Memorial – ANZAC Day Origins as it appeared on its official “birthday”, Friday, 22 April 2016. Photo courtesy of Peter Collins.
ABOVE: The centre plaque on the Memorial provides an overview of who Canon Garland was, and what he achieved over 50 years as a dynamic priest and the catalyst for the creation of the way Australians and New Zealanders observe ANZAC Day.
CGMS thanks you for your interest in this unique initiative to enhance community awareness about Brisbane’s crucial role in the origins of ANZAC Day, and to finally bring some long-overdue recognition to the Brisbane cleric who designed it 100 years ago.
CGMS gladly acknowledged the generous support of private donors and the following corporate and governmental sponsors who helped make the Memorial a reality:
