Historical information

The design for the Shrine of Remembrance was selected by competition among Australian artists and architects. Eighty-three designs were submitted and the winning design was by two Melbourne returned-soldier architects, Philip Hudson and James Wardrop. The inspiration for the external outline came from one of the seven wonders of the ancient world—the mausoleum at Halicarnassus to Mausolus, King of Caria in South West Asia Minor. Although the country was faced with frightful unemployment and financial difficulty in the late 1920s and the 1930s, so great was the gratitude of the people that the huge amount required to build the Shrine was raised or promised within six months from the opening of the appeal in 1928. (https://www.shrine.org.au/About-Us/History)

Lodge Bros were commissioned to build the Shrine of Remembrance in St Kilda Rd in the late 1920s. In 1947, Lodge Bros were manufacturing a further stage at the Shrine of Rememberance, that being the carving and fixing of the bluestone servicemen on the top of the 1939-1945 War Memorial at the Eternal Flame. When funding became available for the new undercroft development at the front of the Shrine in 2001, the Shrine Trustees were eager to explore the possibility of the original stonemasons who built the Shrine, to complete the new development. This came to fruition in 2002-2003 when Lodge Bros constructed all the exterior walls of the undercroft development. Phil Luchetta (Managing Director) was able to source and secure the use of the same granite from Tynong Victoria that was used in the original works of the 1930s.

Physical description

Photograpic image of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance.