|
Montville Memorial Precinct is a heritage-listed memorial precinct at Razorback Road and Main Street (Montville-Mapleton Road), Montville, Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 August 2008. == History == The Montville Memorial Precinct is located in the village of Montville in the Blackall Range west of the Sunshine Coast. Each element of the precinct has a war memorial function and the place is the setting for annual Anzac Day ceremonies. The memorial gates (1921), commemorating World War I servicemen, form an entrance into Montville Hall (1903) from Memorial Close. The hall contains two memorial honour boards commemorating servicemen from both world wars. Opposite the memorial gates and abutting the Close, a park known locally as the "Village Green" contains six memorial trees (1923) and a former Soldiers' Memorial Hall (1941) (now Montville Memorial Hall, St Mary's Church Hall and Community Centre). The precinct is located at the intersection of Main Street (Montville-Mapleton Road) and Razorback Road.〔 The men from Montville who served in World War I came from a community of about fifty-five farmers and dairymen and their families. The settlement had developed some twenty years earlier at the head of Razorback Road which, at the time, was the main means of access from Palmwoods into this part of the Blackall Range. From 1891, when the North Coast railway line came to Palmwoods, it provided a route to the railhead for the fruit growers, dairymen and timber getters of the district. A school was established at the head of the road in 1896 and nearby properties were subdivided into small blocks. By World War I, Montville village had a School of Arts Hall (now Montville Hall), a guesthouse and two stores.〔 About forty men enlisted from Montville's small community; of these six died. Like most communities throughout Australia during the 1920s, Montville erected memorials to its servicemen after the war. As well as honouring those who had volunteered for service, war memorials provided an important focus for collective grieving especially at annual memorial services such as Remembrance Day and Anzac Day. They served as a local expression of patriotism and national identity.〔 Montville's memorial gates were unveiled on Armistice Day, November 1921. They comprised four Helidon stone pillars supporting wrought iron gates and a fence. Lead filled inscriptions of the names of all the local men who enlisted were engraved on marble slabs mounted on the gate pillars.〔 The gates were made by AL Petrie and Son, Queensland's most prolific maker of memorials during that period. Andrew Lang Petrie, was a grandson of Andrew Petrie, Superintendent of Works during Moreton Bay's penal period, and a son of John Petrie, Brisbane's first mayor. He was a leading citizen of Brisbane who held a seat in the Queensland Legislative Assembly for thirty-three years. Other monuments in southeast Queensland made by the company include war memorial gates at Kalinga Park (1920), Kallangur (1923) and Chermside (1924) and other types of memorials such as the Ipswich Railway Workshops War Memorial (1919), Graceville Memorial Park (1920), and Toowong Memorial Park (1922).〔 Montville's memorial gates are rare in Queensland and in Australia in that they include the names of those who volunteered for service but were rejected. War memorials often recorded the names of both those who returned from service during war and those who died. By the absence of names on a monument, these memorials also identified those who did not volunteer for service. This was especially true in small towns like Montville where everyone in the community was known. To avoid unfair public disapprobation, associations of rejected volunteers often petitioned to have their names included on memorials, usually without success. While the names of volunteers who were rejected do appear on a number of honour boards, it is rare for them to appear on monuments as they do at Montville.〔 The memorial gates are the focal point of annual Anzac Day services at Montville. The adjacent Memorial Close, memorial trees and Montville Hall perform functions in these services as well as being important elements in the setting of the gates. The close, shaded by the memorial trees, provides a wide, open area where members of the community gather to participate in the dawn ceremony. Afterwards, Anzac biscuits and refreshments are served in the hall, where veterans may also play the traditional "two-up" game. Rolls of honour for both world wars are mounted on the wall.〔 Montville Hall, completed on 23 February 1903, predated World War I by more than ten years but it was a logical choice for the site of the gates since, together with the "Village Green", it was the centre of community activities; a role it continues to play. It was built by Robert Whitecross to plans and specifications prepared by William Skene, a local farmer.〔 A number of alterations have been made to the hall since its construction. Between 1915 and 1921 it was lengthened by about one third. A supper room and verandah incorporating a kitchen annex was added to the eastern side during the 1950s. In 1999, a large rear extension was built incorporating a dressing room, stage lighting, store-room, toilets and an upgraded kitchen.〔 Opposite the hall and memorial gates, a line of six memorial trees grow on the "Village Green" along Memorial Close. They are in the tradition of memorial avenues. The first of these in Australia were planted in Victoria. During the war, the State Recruiting Committee in Victoria recommended that each intending recruit should be given the assurance that his name would be memorialised in an avenue of honour. By 1918, Ballarat was committed to nearly 4,000 plaqued trees. In southeast Queensland there are a number of memorial avenues including Anzac Memorial Avenue between Petrie and Redcliffe, Diggers Drive at Kalinga Park, and memorial avenues in Graceville Memorial Park and at the Eumundi War Memorial.〔 Montville's memorial trees were planted by children from the nearby Montville State School as an Arbour Day project in September 1923. The school had been planting Arbour Day trees since before World War I and by the 1920s available room within the school grounds was becoming restricted. This prompted the decision by Arthur Suthers, Head Teacher of the school in 1923, to arrange for six figs (Ficus benjamina) to be planted as a memorial opposite the memorial gates. Each of the trees bears a plaque naming one of the six local men who died during World War I.〔 The former Soldiers' Memorial Hall is located on the opposite side of the Village Green to the memorial trees. Memorial halls were a popular form of utilitarian memorial. They were often used as a clubroom for returned soldiers and sometimes also functioned as a community hall.〔 The Soldiers' Memorial Hall was built in 1941 under the auspices of the Montville sub-branch of the Returned Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia (RSSAILA, now RSL) by veterans of World War I as a club room for returned soldiers. In seeking a grant of crown land on which to build the hall, the builders cited the need to provide support for World War II servicemen when they returned. As home to the local sub-branch of the RSL, it functioned as a clubroom for local veterans until 1978 when it was donated to St Mary's Church of England and renamed Montville Memorial Hall, St Mary's Church Hall and Community Centre. Since construction, a kitchen has been added. The verandah was built in August 1995.〔 It is not unusual for a number of war memorials to be sited in close proximity. The best-known example is Anzac Square in Brisbane, where a number of monuments are located in proximity to the Shrine of Remembrance. Memorial gates are also often found in juxtaposition with memorial avenues in parks, where they often form the entrance to the avenue. Examples of this type include Kalinga Park and Toowong Memorial Park. However, the Montville Precinct, containing memorial gates, trees, hall, close and honour rolls, is unusual for the variety of memorial types in close proximity.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Montville Memorial Precinct」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|