Soldiers' Memorial Park

Story

RSL (Port Pirie Sub Branch) Inc.

Posted on

“There was a thoroughly representative attendance at the meeting last night held to arrange preliminary details in connection with the scheme for transforming the Central Parklands into a scene worthy of the importance of the town, and a place of pleasant resort for residents. Embodied in the scheme is provision for erecting a monument to the memory of those from our midst who have made the great sacrifice.”

And so began plans to establish the Soldiers' Memorial Park in Port Pirie on the 26th of May 1917. A general committee was formed, with the amount of funding required estimated to be about £2000 for fencing and other improvements. It was resolved that a collection committee be formed where the various districts could be allotted. Buttons were sold on street corners and at the Smelters’ gates, for the cost of a post or rail or both, for the new fence.

Working bees were set up on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons for volunteers to erect a jarrah post and rail fence around the perimeter of the park.

The Broken Hill Associated Smelter (B.H.A.S.) donated £1000 for the project; the United Ancient Order of Druids in Port Pirie who had around 100 names inscribed on its honour roll who had paid the supreme sacrifice in The Great War purchased a tree for every name on the roll and allocated individual members the responsibility for planting and tending them “in a distinct step to beautify Pirie.”

A Rotunda had already been established in the parkland and was officially opened on Arbor Day on the 9th of August 1899. The idea of building a rotunda had been taken up three or four years earlier because “a place centrally situated where the public might repair for enjoyment was felt to be a necessity”.

Garden plots were established around the rotunda with phlox, carnations and sunflower plants offsetting the beautiful lawn. Mr J. Greenless of Aldgate donated 100 rose bushes of different varieties and 400 to 500 bulbs. The Port Adelaide City Council forwarded 150 poplar trees to the The Soldiers Memorial Park Committee and Town Gardener Mr G.H. Giles in June of 1919.

The Soldiers Memorial Park Committee formally handed over the park to the town council to control on the 18th August 1919 asking it to “keep in view” a recommendation from the friendly societies of Port Pirie to erect entrance gates to the park to perpetuate the memories of their members who had fallen at the front. The site recommended was on the corner of Alexander and Gertrude Streets.

The eventual site was adjacent, on the corner of Memorial Drive and Gertrude Streets. Across time, Soldiers Memorial Park has come to be known as Memorial Park; commemorating all three branches of the armed forces on various monuments within and adjacent to the park..

Sources:

Last updated: