Maryborough Cenotaph and Anzac Nurse Tribute

Maryborough’s Cenotaph at the edge of Queen’s Park is both spectacular and unique – no other Great War memorial in the world gives equal recognition to the nurses.

Crowned by a stunning Carrara marble sculpture of the Winged Victory of Nike, the monument features four marble life-size figures – an airman, a soldier, a sailor and a nurse.

Not only is it unique in putting the tribute to the nurses of World War 1 to the other services: it also has the nurse placed in the most prominent position on what is considered one of Australia’s finest monuments to the sacrifices of those who went to serve in The Great War.

Only in later years did Australia and the rest of the world comprehend the terrible experiences of nurses who tried to treat and comfort dying and horribly maimed soldiers, living themselves in primitive conditions at forward stations near the front line or in hospitals reeking of the butchery of a merciless war.

Maryborough citizens raised the money for the Cenotaph to be sculpted in Italy. It was considered so magnificent that when it arrived in Sydney in 1922 it was assembled for the citizens of that city to admire before it was dismantled and stowed on to a coastal steamer for its trip north.

Listed among the fallen from World War I is D. K. Chapman, the Maryborough soldier who was the first Anzac to step ashore at Gallipoli. He survived Gallipoli but died in France in 1916, the day after he arrived at Pozieres on the Western Front. His statue became the catalyst for the Gallipoli to Armistice memorial trail.

Names of Maryborough district service people who gave their lives in later battles after WWI have been added to the Cenotaph, which is surrounded by plaques commemorating other conflicts where Australians served their country. Decorative iron gates commemorating the 1914-1948 war, made at Croydon’s Foundry, sit between sandstone pillars leading into the park but are no longer used.