At a quiet pull-over off the Lakes Way, where you may find fishing going on at the picturesque Wallamba River, there is the grassy reserve of Darawank War Memorial Park. In the latter half of 2018 a new memorial was placed here. A large printed sign, with a predominantly blue colouring, is flanked by silouhette rustic panels depicting a lion, and a field of poppies, between wooden square posts. The following text is superimposed over a photo of the Menin Gate, which is followed by a poem:
The Meaning of
ARMISTICE & MENIN GATE
November 11, 1918
"At 5 o'clock in the morning of November 11, 1918, just north of Paris in the isolated Forest of Compiegne, representatives from the countries of France, Great Britain, and Germany held a clandestine meeting in a railway car. The hope was that the Allies could secure an end to the hostilities of the First World War (also called the Great War), by the signing of an armistice, a mutual agreement to a ceasefire that is a precursor to a peace treaty. Armistice Day began as the ending of hostilities between the Allied Powers and Germany in the First World War. Although the armistice did not officially end the war, it did end the fighting as a precursor to the Treaty of Versailles, which did end the war.
_________
"In 1936, two large stone guardian lions were donated to the Australian War Memorial by the burgomaster (mayor) of the Belgian city of Ypres. The lions, carved from limestone, were given to the Australian government as a gesture of friendship. In exchange, in 1938, the Memorial gave a bronze casting of of C. Web Gilbert's sculpture 'Digger' on behalf od the Australian government.
"The inscription on the casting of 'Digger' reads:
In assurance of a friendship that will not be forgotten even when the last digger has gone west and the last grave is crumbled.
"The lions had origianlly stood on plinths on either side of the Menin Gate at Ypres. This gate was one of only two entries into the medieval fortified city. It was through this gate that allied soldiers, including Australians, marched to the battlefields of the Ypres salient between 1914 and 1918. After the war, the Menin Gate was chosen as the site for a memorial to the thousands of allied soldiers who were killed in the area but had no known grave. The memorial consists of an imposing archway surmounted by a recumbent lion and it is inscribed with the names of 54,900 dead from Britain and Commonwealth countries. It was opened in 1927.
"The lions had been toppled from their plinths by the shellfire which, during the course of the war, had reduced much of the city to rubble. Both lions were deeply chipped across their backs, and one had lost its right foreleg. Theother had been badly damaged on one side of its head, and major damage elsewhere had reduced it to only a head and trunk ending just below the ribcage.
"When the lions arrived at the Memorial in September 1936, the building was not yet complete and lacked a suitable space to display them properly, although the lion with the missing leg was displayed by itself for several years. It was decided in 1985 to reconstruct the missing pieces of each lion in such a way that it would be obvious what was original and what was reconstructed. The reconstructed portions were designed so that they could be dismantled to return the sculptures to their original state, should that prove necessary. The work was done by Kasimiers L. Zywuszko, a Polish-born sculptor, with the assistance of period photographs obtained from Ypres. It was completed in 1987.
"The lions returned to display in 1991. After double checking the load-bearing capacity of the foyer floor, the lions were lifted by crane over the Memorial steps and placed inside the front entrance.
"On 5 September 2014, the Menin Gate lions were removed from display and went on loan to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, returning in mid-2015.
"The Menin Gate lions were reinstated in their original home in the city of Ieper (Yypres), Belgium, as part of commemorations of the First World War and were returned to the Memorial in Canberra after Remembrance Day 2017."
Beneath that text is a photo of the donated lions in position at the Australia War Memorial in Canberra. Then below the photo is the following poem about Flanders Fields
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
In Flanders fields the poppoes blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We live, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
in Flanders fields.
[Lietenant-Colonel John McCrae]
Address: 845 The Lakes Way, Darawank, NSW, 2428 Australia
Visited: 1545-6, Sunday, 23 December, 2018
[Noted on my way to a 60th anniversary lunch with the ex-Laws, and photgraphed on the way home.]
There is a geocache - mine - at the end of the bitumen path.