Shrine Of Remembrance

Public donations helped to raise the funds for the Shrine of Remembrance, Brisbane’s landmark war memorial, the classical design of which was based on the ancient Greek temenos (sacred enclosure) and tholos (circular shrine).

The 18 Doric columns are thought to represent the year 1918 when World War I ended although the shrine itself wasn’t completed until 1930. Designed by Sydney architects Buchanan & Cowper and constructed from Helidon sandstone, the shrine also houses a bronze urn and an eternal flame similar to that in the Unknown Soldiers Memorial in Brussels.

The lesser visited crypt below is home to evocative shrines of memories, with an extraordinary Venetian glass mosaic the star of the World War II shrine. Its unlikely creator was a dentist – Don Ross – who, with a patience gained from years of mouth gazing, spent two years arranging 140000 hand-cut glass enamel tiles mixed with soil from World War II graves, in a powerful tribute to those who served. Located in the RSL headquarters on Wickham Terrace since 1959, the shrine was relocated to Anzac Square 22 years later, along with the mosaic. It had to be painstakingly removed piece by piece and reassembled and Venetian mosaicist Renato Gregorini was flown in from Italy for the staggering task, which he managed