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Anzac Memorial Park and adjacent Banyan trees
| Source: |
Go to the Queensland
Heritage Register for more information. |
| Identifier: |
600934 |
| Location: |
The Strand, TOWNSVILLE |
Local
Government: |
TOWNSVILLE CITY COUNCIL |
| State: |
QLD |
Statement of
Significance: |
Anzac Memorial Park and adjacent Banyan trees
are important for their association with The Strand and Cleveland
Bay foreshore as one of the earliest recreation venues in
Townsville. The establishment of the park was closely connected with
civic leader and publican John Henry Tyack and the re-development of
the Queens Hotel opposite, and for the first half of the 20th
century, remained one of Townsville's principal tourist attractions.
Since the early 20th century, the park has provided a community
focus for commemorative activities, and contains a number of
memorials to events or persons of significance in Townsville's
history, including the WJ Castling Memorial (1908), the Bandstand
(1913), the First World War Memorial (1923-24), the Queensland
Centenary Fountain (1959) and the Battle of the Coral Sea Memorial
(1992). The WJ Castling Memorial and the Bandstand are finely
detailed, classically-derived structures that reflect the Mannerism
of the Victorian and Edwardian Periods and the tradition of
constructing public buildings in a classical style. The bandstand in
particular is an aesthetically pleasing and skillfully executed
composition based on the language of classical architecture.
Furthermore, the principal original elements of the composition are
intact. The WJ Castling Memorial is significant for its
craftsmanship and intactness. The First World War Memorial is a
dominant structure in Anzac Park, and in its aesthetic quality and
craftsmanship, makes a significant contirubtion to the townscape
quality of the park. The First World War Memorial is a member of a
class of commemorative structures erected as a record of the local
impact of a major historical event and intended to endure, and along
with the re-naming of the park as Anzac Memorial Park, survives as
evidence of a widespread social movement expressing Australian
patriotism and nationalism in the interwar period. The Queensland
Centenary Fountain is significant as Townsville City Council's major
contribution to the celebration of the centenary of Queensland's
separation from New South Wales in 1859. The adjacent mature Banyan
trees are significant as some of the earliest surviving street
plantings in Townsville. |
| Description: |
Anzac Park, Townsville, extends along the
foreshore overlooking Cleveland Bay, with views to Magnetic Island.
It is bordered to the west by Tobruk Memorial Baths, to the south by
The Strand, to the east by the Townsville Bowls Club, and to the
north by reclaimed land forming part of a recent marina development.
The park is surrounded by a low concrete edging with obelisk-like
pillars at regular intervals. Steel chains stretch between the
pillars along the sea front (to the north) only. There are mature
Banyan trees along The Strand boundary, just outside the park
reserve, and early garden beds along the street and throughout the
park. More recently-planted palm trees are scattered throughout the
park. Anzac Memorial Park forms a garden setting for a number of
adjacent buildings of cultural heritage significance, including the
former Queen's Hotel [600936] and former Customs House [600937]
along The Strand, further up on Wickham Street, the State Government
Offices [601384], and at the corner of Cleveland Terrace and Melton
Terrace, the former Supreme Court Building [600885]. Anzac Memorial
Park contains a number of memorial structures. The memorial
Bandstand is centrally placed at the eastern end of the park. [West
of this are newly established gardens and a recent children's
playground.] In the centre of the park, opposite the main entrance
gates to The Strand and Wickham Street, is the 1959 Queensland
Centenary Fountain. To the north of the Fountain is a 1992 memorial
to the Battle of the Coral Sea. The entrance gates, Fountain and
Coral Sea Memorial form a north-south axis which bisects the park.
West of the fountain is the First World War Memorial, also centrally
located. At the western end of the park is the WJ Castling Memorial,
again, centrally positioned. The WJ Castling Memorial, First World
War Memorial, Queensland Centenary Fountain, and the Bandstand, form
an axis east-west, and each is set in a paved surround within the
grassed area of the park's centre. W J Castling Memorial, 1908 The W
J Castling memorial drinking fountain is an exercise in the use of
classical elements, based on a simple square form plan with an attic
storey raised on Ionic columns. The structure derives from the Roman
triumphal arch, with its four columns standing on pedestals and
rising to an entablature, above which is the attic storey with a
semicircular decorative motif. The arches have been displaced by the
capitals, and occur within the structure as a shallow dome above the
central urn on its octagonal base. The curves of a basilica roof are
reduced to a convex pyramidal form, topped with a decorative carved
finial. Carved of yellow sandstone, the columns, roof and urn are
supported on a plinth and attached column bases of white marble. A
basin has been formed in marble on each side of the drinking
fountain Bandstand, 1913 The bandstand is also an exercise in the
language of classical architecture, using a simple square form plan
with a pyramidal roof raised on composite order columns. The
Mannerist composition of the screen derives from the Renaissance
illustrations of the classical orders, in which the elements of the
entablature surmounting the capital are interpreted as panels of
open space between flat pilasters. The frieze band of the
entablature is infilled with decorative cast iron panels, framed
between chamfered square section timber posts and visually supported
on corner brackets to the underside of the taenia, or plate that
seperates the frieze from the architrave below. Panels of decorative
cast iron are fixed between columns to form a continuous balustrade,
broken only at the top of the steps where it meets round iron posts
with ball finials. Paired columns at each corner are infilled with
frieze panels above and balustrading below, with curved corner
brackets at each junction to form an egg-shaped opening in the
screen. Columns are set on a base of rendered brickwork, set one
metre above the surrounding garden beds with rendered steps and
curved strings. Within the bandstand is a recent hardwood boarded
floor, and a flat VJ lined ceiling extending beyond the screen of
the walls to form boxed eaves stopped at a deep timber fascia. The
roof is sheeted in corrugated galvanised iron, and has a turned
timber finial. The structure is finished in a green plastic paint
except for the floorboards which are unpainted and the ceiling and
finial which are painted off-white. There is no guttering nor
rainwater goods, and the original interior light fitting is missing.
First World War Memorial, 1923-24 This memorial is a column of rough
cut, rusticated grey granite supported on a red-white marble plinth
and bracketed by three white marble fins each supported by triple
columns on attached bases. The column is finished with a projecting
abacus of granite, and is supported on a concrete stylobate of two
steps, surfaced in red granite chips. White marble tablets are fixed
to the column between the fins, and high on the column's four faces
are inset circular bronze plaques, each sheltered by a narrow
bracketed shelf of white marble. The four plaques depict an eagle,
crossed swords, anchor, and the seal of the City of Townsville, and
replace four clock faces. Queensland Centenary Fountain, 1959 This
is a circular fountain approximately 1 metre high with central
sprays. It sits in a shallow pool fed by perimeter sprays set in a
low masonry ring. Battle of the Coral Sea Memorial, 1992 Earth is
banked in a glacis against two low, outward-sloping walls that form
two facing quadrants around a circular paved area. The walls rise in
an arc to a height of about one metre in their centre, and are
finished in red granite. The lettering and illustrations that tell
the story of the Battle of the Coral Sea are picked out in
contrasting rough and smooth finishes on the surfaces of the walls.
Within the paved area are two truncated columns, bearing bronze
information plaques. | |
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