Alister Henskens SC MP, Member for Ku-ring-gai, today announced that Ku-ring-gai soldiers who enlisted and fought in the Great War are to be honoured as part of a stunning artwork at the refurbished ANZAC Memorial in Sydney’s Hyde Park.

Killara, Normanhurst, Pymble, Turramurra, Wahroonga, Waitara and Warrawee are among 1,699 NSW towns, suburbs and localities where soldiers enlisted from for the Great War. As part of the ANZAC Memorial Centenary Project, soil samples will be taken from these sites and displayed in the Hall of Service as part of a permanent artwork by artist Fiona Hall.

The NSW Government is upgrading the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park to realise the vision of the Memorial’s original architect, Bruce Dellit, including a water cascade reaching south through the park to Liverpool Street. It will also have new education and exhibition spaces and storage for the Memorial’s collection.

Mr Henskens said the local community will be engaged to participate in the collection of soil or attend an event to witness soil being collected as the ANZAC Memorial Centenary Project Soil Collection continues.

“This project is collecting soil from 1,699 locations across the state from where Australians enlisted for the First World War,” Mr Henskens said.

“It is about bringing our state together to remind ourselves that people from all areas of NSW answered the call to defend our country and continue to do so.”

Minister for Veteran Affairs David Elliott collected the first sample of soil at the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon at a ceremony on March 27.

“The ANZAC Memorial is the state’s principal memorial to all Australians who have served, and collecting soil from sites from where men and women across NSW came from reminds us that this memorial belongs to everyone,” Mr Elliott said.

NSW Veterans Affairs Director Caroline Mackaness said the project acknowledges more than a century of service by NSW men and women. It will form a lasting record of the State’s history and the geographic reach of the call to serve as a worthy tribute for this Centenary of ANZAC period.

The ANZAC Memorial upgrade will be complete in late 2018, as the Centenary of ANZAC commemorations draw to a close.