Cenotaph upgraded and ready to go for Anzac Day

Remembering fallen

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Paving and landscaping around the Mossman Cenotaph has been completed just in time for Anzac Day. Picture: Shaun Hollis

The Mossman Cenotaph on Front Street near the Douglas Shire Council chambers has received a $150,000 upgrade just in time for Anzac Day following about six years of lobbying by the local RSL.

Mossman RSL president John Grime said the upgrade looked “tremendous”. 

“Not just the paving, but the landscaping to the left and right of it really blends in and draws people’s focus to (the cenotaph),” Mr Grime said.

There are some floor-mounted lights that shine up at both the flagpole and the memorial as well, he said.

“To me it’s a reflection of what’s gone on over at least the last 20 years where the council and RSL have worked together on projects. 

“We are very grateful to council to committing to this.”

Mr Grime said the finished result was a collaboration between the council and the RSL.

“We’ve been articulating what we would like, and the challenges, but the council has absolutely come to the party and done that, and done it in time for Anzac Day, despite all the weather and other challenges you get in the summer, so we’re really grateful.”

RSL secretary Wally Gray said the limited space around the monument had been difficult for wheelchair users to negotiate, so he and former president Ron Savage have been working on having the space redesigned.

Mr Gray said he had been fighting for Douglas Shire Council to make the changes for six years.

“You get a wheelchair around there, about half a dozen turns until you got it round the corner, and then you’d do the same with the next one,” he said.

“What they’ve done is they’ve taken the existing walls out and put round walls in and expanded it right out.”

Mr Gray said the next project he was now lobbying for was a redesign of the actual monument.

“We want to get a statuette that’s about three-feet high to put on top of it,” he said.

“The little one that is there is OK.

“But now it’s expanded out everyone’s commenting on how small it is and we need something bigger.”

Mr Savage said everyone would also now be able to better access the cenotaph.

 “The previous problem was that people would just come to the front, everyone would try and crowd and put stuff there and they’d all be falling on the ground and everything, so now you can get around it.”

The area has also been landscaped.

Mr Gray and Mr Savage also thanked the council for fixing the access in time for the ceremony tomorrow (Friday, April 25).

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