Ryde Cenotaph

Year built

2006

Project partners

North Ryde, Ryde, Gladesville, and Eastwood RSL sub-branches

Project funding

City of Ryde and Bevillesta Pty Ltd

Project artists

Milne and Stonehouse

About Ryde Cenotaph

Memorials of the First World War in Ryde were principally honour boards, the War Memorial Hospital, and the establishment of Returned Services Clubs.

ln 1966, RSL sub-branch members and local aldermen identified the need for a memorial to perpetuate the memory of Australian service personnel who had participated in all theatres of war. The following year a memorial was constructed near the Civic Centre on Hatton's Flat.

This cenotaph was made from granite on a stepped dais with an eternal flame set in a bronze bowl and carried the insignia of the three armed-forces together with the words 'Lest We Forget'.

Construction of an overhead footbridge to Top Ryde City in 2009 negatively affected the cenotaph, and in cooperation with local RSL sub-branches a new cenotaph was designed for Ryde Park.

The central stainless steel obelisk points towards eleven o'clock. A permanent shadow in the paving engraves the history of service by men and women stretching the imprint of the obelisk to the insignia wall. Within the body of the obelisk, a light source evokes the eternal flame.

Small pieces of granite from the first cenotaph were incorporated in the new monument. Insignia from the original cenotaph were moved to the Memorial Rose Garden at the North Ryde RSL Community CIub in Pittwater Road in April 2015.

Location

Ryde Park - 7 Blaxland Road, Ryde 2112 View Map

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