Passchendaele Memorial Garden Australia

This remembrance garden commemorates the Australians who suffered the horrific experience of the Passchendaele battlefield. Drawing upon the landscape around Passchendaele during the First World War, the garden and artwork honours those who died here, often in unmarked graves.

Based on the shape of a Brodie helmet, the bowls of the artwork refer to the water-filled craters that covered the devastated landscape, and speak of the fragility of life and lives poured out for others. The use of glass recalls Australia’s role at the forefront of glass-making during World War One. Embedded in the glass are small copper pellets reclaimed from e-waste- so we remember the lives of fellow Australians consumed in the furnace of war, and honour their memory as deeply significant and relevant to carry forward into our future.

The colours of the artwork and garden bring the heartland of Australia to this place, the bowls reminiscent of rock waterholes in the desert. The under planting and mulching of the garden speak of the mixed zones of Australian environments, from the harsh deserts of South Australia and the Northern Territory, to the lush grasslands that are found all over Australia. While these plants are bursting with life, the crater that has been formed beside them represents the destructive force of war how it tears apart the landscape. It is a reminder of the unimaginable hardship our service men and women endured during the war so our nation could flourish.

‘And it may be that everything will be clear
When we meet the Diggers beyond the veil.
And we’ll find the reason for Pozières
And we’ll know the purpose of Passchendaele’.
Extract of Pozières and Passchendaele, taken from Carry On! : the traditions of the A.I.F. / edited by C. Longmore, published in Perth, Imperial Printing Company 1940.

Acknowledgements on behalf of the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Artist Tracey Johnson; Glass Production Patrick Wong; E-Waste Beads University of New South Wales; Garden Designer Philip Johnson; Graphic Designer and Project Manager Balarinji

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Source

• Text: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Photos: Luc Van Waeyenberge
• Informatiebord Kasteeldomein Zonnebeke