Queenstown war memorial

This is indeed a grievous contribution by Queenstown in terms of the percentage of soldiers lost. I run a reserve servicemen's sub-branch in Richmond, Victoria, Australia.

The best figures I can obtain for the First World War for our municipality are around 5,000 enlistments, with around 1,000 not returning. The overall figure for Australia is around 300,000 enlistments for overseas service, with 60,000 killed (in all wars).

A 20% death rate. A 30% death rate, as indicated by the Queenstown memorial for WW1, is a huge blow to a small community.

Peter McCrossin

The initial proposal was to build a memorial playground, however some considered this to be an innappropriate memorial. Instead, they agreed on constructing a memorial arch at the entrance to the Queenstown Gardens. The placement was crucial to draw the attention not only of locals, but also of tourists to the sacrifice made by the small, isolated community. One side of the arch features the name of the fallen soldiers while the other, much to the dismay of a number of returned servicemen, displays the names of all who served. Although many servicemen objected to this, the general community consensus was that the names of all should be included. Have a 1930s photo of the memorial, if that is of any interest?