Port Pirie Memorial Grandstand

Port Pirie Memorial Grandstand

On Thursday 27th  May 1926 a meeting of Port Pirie Returned Soldiers was held to discuss the proposal to erect a “fitting grandstand in keeping with the imposing entrance to the ground” (Memorial Oval). Contractors commenced work on the erection of the grandstand on 29th March 1927. ¹The Soldier’s Memorial Grandstand was opened on Saturday the 13th August 1927 and along with the World War 1 Memorial Gates for the oval, represented an outlay of nearly £5,000 and fittingly commemorated the memory of local men who fell in the Great War. ³The opening ceremony was conducted before the football match between West Torrens and Port Pirie Association in front of a large gathering who occupied seats on the grandstand.

³The day was a proud one for the Soldiers' Memorial Committee and the members of the Port Pirie Jubilee Celebration Committee, because it completed a work long planned for and “wrought with utmost enthusiasm and goodwill”. It was handed over to the Mayor, to receive it on behalf of the citizens and conditional on the Returned Sailors and Soldiers League being able to hold 12 monthly meetings, Anzac and Armistice Day functions in the hall.

²Eight fine war pictures were hung in the Port Pirie Memorial Grandstand Hall including the famous masterpiece "Menin Gate at Midnight"; the remainder being a portion of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers League's original collection.

³The grandstand had seating accommodation for 600 and was constructed of reinforced concrete, 78 x 34 feet. The height of the grandstand was 25 feet. In the basement there was a lunch hall, a committee room, kitchen, refreshment and cool drink ‘department’ and a 39 foot long public bar. A verandah ran the whole length of the rear of the building. The lunch hall and committee room could be used as one room for dances. The central bay of the facade was emphasized by a gable on the apex of which was a flagpole, and there was an inscription in gold, "Soldiers' Memorial, 1914-1918." In the pilasters are set memorial tablets which, as their inscriptions show, were respectively unveiled by Lieutenant Colonel A. A. Pearce on behalf of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers' League, and the other on behalf of the citizens of Port Pirie by the Mayor Mr. J. C. Fitzgerald, MP, who fought with the South Australian forces in the Boer war.

Sources:

¹https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165632140

²https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/95881962

³https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165632275

• Trove Australia https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165632140