Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Records Section was formed in May 1917 to ensure the preservation of records relating to the First World War. Records and relics were exhibited first in Melbourne and later Canberra.

The idea for a national war memorial to commemorate veterans and to showcase war trophies in the Australian capital was also conceived by Charles Bean a year earlier in 1916. The Commonwealth Government was supportive of Bean's efforts and established an Australian War Memorial committee in 1919. Bean, together with John Treloar, the officer-in-charge of the Australian War Records Section and later the AWM's first director, guided the creation of AWM. A museum to display collected war relics was also incorporated into the institution, with Bean and Treloar believing that the museum was philosophically and operationally inseparable from the memorial.

In 1923, the Commonwealth Government officially announced its intentions to build a national war memorial, with the AWM being formally established through legislation in 1925. A design competition for a new memorial was held from 1925 to 1926, although no winner was selected as none were able to satisfy the competitions criteria, generally by being too expensive. Instead Emil Sodersten and John Crust were asked to collaborate and create a design that incorporates Sodersten's Art Deco style with Crust's cost-cutting approach. Construction was set to begin in 1929, although its start was delayed due to the onset of the Great Depression. The project's scope was also reduced due to the Depression and a limited budget.

By 1934, the "Lone Pine" pine, propagated from a seed brought back from Gallipoli, was planted on the property, and some construction work had started again. By 1935, parts of the Memorial Building were occupied by AWM staff, although the AWM was not officially opened to the public until Remembrance Day in 1941.

While the Memorial was initially intended to commemorate only World War I, in 1939 the beginning of World War II led to this role being reviewed. In 1941 the board of the Memorial recommended the Second World War be included and in 1952 the Australian War Memorial Act was amended to extend the AWM's scope of commemoration to include Australian involvement in all wars. Perhaps inadvertently this also narrowed the scope of the Memorial to cover only Australian service personnel, excluding Australians serving in other Commonwealth forces, Merchant Navy sailors and civilians such as members of the Red Cross and war correspondents that has previously been intended to be within the scope of the Memorial. In 1975, its scope was expanded again to allow for the commemoration of Australians who died as a result of war, even those who had not served with an armed forces from Australia.

In 1993, a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was installed at the AWM. From 1996 to 1999, the AWM expanded and upgraded its museum galleries and exhibitions, as well as create a space for temporary exhibitions.

Christopher Latham was appointed as the AWM's first musical artist-in-residence in 2017. Latham began his Flowers of War series in 2015 to commemorate First World War musicians and artists. His Gallipoli Symphony premiered in 2015 and Diggers' Requiem in 2018. The memorial commissioned Latham's Vietnam Requiem, which was first performed in June 2021, and works are planned to commemorate the Korean War (2023), the Holocaust (2024), and World War II (2025).

In 2020, a biennial literary award for military history was established by the war memorial council, named for Les Carlyon, a former member of the council.

Commemorative services

The Australian War Memorial organises a nightly commemorative service known as the Last Post service, as well as two national services for Anzac Day and Remembrance Day each year.

Last Post ceremony

The Last Post ceremony was a tradition that began in 2013 and occurs each day 16:45 AEDT. The ceremony begins with the singing of the Australian National Anthem, followed by a piper descending from the Hall of Memory. Visitors are then invited to lay wreaths and floral tributes beside the reflecting pool. A story about an individual on the memorial's Roll of Honour is then read aloud by a volunteer from the Australian Defence Force. The ceremony then concludes with the sounding of the Last Post. The ceremony typically lasts under 30 minutes.

Off-site storage facility

Only five percent of the AWM's collection is displayed at any time, with the remainder being stored at the Treloar Resource Centre in the industrial suburb of Mitchell. The facility also includes workshops that are used for restoration tasks. The facility is occasionally opened to the public for "Big Things in Store" open days.

Courtyard

The entrance to the courtyard is located immediately after the Memorial Building's entrance and is flanked by lion statues from the original Menin Gate, donated to the Australian War Memorial by the Mayor of Ypres in 1936. The courtyard contains a reflecting pool and steps up its northern end leading to the Hall of Memory. The courtyard is lined by arched cloisters, with the Roll of Honour positioned behind them. The Roll of Honour panels were installed in 1961 to commemorate the dead of World War I. Subsequent panels to commemorate the dead from other conflicts were installed after the 1960s. The Roll of Honour is situated on the east, west and southern walls of the courtyard and contains the names of over 102,000 Australians killed in war, from the Mahdist War and the War in Afghanistan. No rank or distinction is recorded with the names, on the basis that all died equally.

The courtyard has 26 carved stone figures, representing Australian fauna and Indigenous people. The original plaster models were designed by Bowles and sculpted by W. Swan in 1940. However, as the carvings were made of Wondabyne sandstone, they suffered extensive deterioration until they were replaced in the 2010s. Originally all were gargoyles, but the two figures depicting an Indigenous man and woman had their functionality as gargoyles removed following consultations with Indigenous elders in 2017.

Plants were introduced into the courtyard in 1977, to address a perceived need to soften the "austere" appearance of the area. A granite cascade by Robert Woodward was added to the northern end of the pool in 1980, which was later replaced by an eternal flame in 1988.