Brooweena War Memorial
| Brooweena War Memorial | |
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Brooweena War Memorial, 2008
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| Location | Smith Crescent, Brooweena, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 25°36′02″S 152°15′46″E / 25.6006°S 152.2628°ECoordinates: 25°36′02″S 152°15′46″E / 25.6006°S 152.2628°E |
| Design period | 1919 - 1930s (interwar period) |
| Built | 1922 |
| Official name: Brooweena War Memorial | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600969 |
| Significant period | 1922- (social, fabric) 1922 (historical) |
| Significant components | memorial - soldier statue, commemorative plaque |
| Builders | F W Webb |
 Location of Brooweena War Memorial in Queensland
Location of Brooweena War Memorial in Queensland
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Brooweena War Memorial is a heritage-listed memorial at Smith Crescent, Brooweena, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1922 by F W Webb. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The Brooweena War Memorial was erected by the residents of the Woocoo Shire in late 1922. It is not known who designed the monument but it was produced by Maryborough monumental masonry firm F W Webb. The marble and sandstone memorial honours the 39 local men who served during the First World War including the 10 fallen. A later set of plates records the 43 local men and women who served in the Second World War.
The strength of Brooweena's patriotic support during the First World War was remarkable. It funded an ambulance for France and has another memorial (a privately funded bridge) south of the town. The size of the digger memorial is large in comparison to the size of the town.
Australia, and Queensland in particular, had few civic monuments before the First World War. The memorials erected in its wake became our first national monuments, recording the devastating impact of the war on a young nation. Australia lost 60 000 from a population of about 4 million, representing one in five of those who served. No previous or subsequent war has made such an impact on the nation.
Even before the end of the war, memorials became a spontaneous and highly visible expression of national grief. To those who erected them, they were as sacred as grave sites, substitute graves for the Australians whose bodies lay in battlefield cemeteries in Europe and the Middle East. British policy decreed that the Empire war dead were to be buried where they fell. The word "cenotaph", commonly applied to war memorials at the time, literally means "empty tomb".
Australian war memorials are distinctive in that they commemorate not only the dead. Australians were proud that their first great national army, unlike other belligerent armies, was composed entirely of volunteers, men worthy of honour whether or not they made the supreme sacrifice. Many memorials honour all who served from a locality, not just the dead, providing valuable evidence of community involvement in the war. Such evidence is not readily obtainable from military records, or from state or national listings, where names are categorised alphabetically or by military unit.
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