Finch Hatton War Memorial
| Finch Hatton War Memorial | |
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Finch Hatton War Memorial, 2009
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| Location | Anzac Parade, Finch Hatton, Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 21°08′21″S 148°38′00″E / 21.1392°S 148.6334°ECoordinates: 21°08′21″S 148°38′00″E / 21.1392°S 148.6334°E |
| Design period | 1919 - 1930s (interwar period) |
| Built | 1921 |
| Architect | Melrose & Fenwick |
| Architectural style(s) | Eclectic |
| Official name: Finch Hatton War Memorial | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 October 1992 |
| Reference no. | 600723 |
| Significant period | 1921- (social) 1921 (historical, fabric) |
| Significant components | memorial - soldier statue |
| Builders | Melrose & Fenwick |
 Location of Finch Hatton War Memorial in Queensland
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Finch Hatton War Memorial is a heritage-listed memorial at Anzac Parade, Finch Hatton, Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Melrose & Fenwick and built in 1921 by Melrose & Fenwick. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The Finch Hatton War Memorial was erected on 19 November 1921, and it is possible that it may never have been officially unveiled. It was erected at a cost of £200 which was paid for by public subscription. The stone memorial was designed and produced by Melrose and Fenwick of Mackay and honours the 16 local men who fell in the First World War. Later additions honour the 7 who fell in the Second World War.
The erection of the memorial was made possible through the combined efforts of two towns, Finch Hatton and Netherdale.
The initial development of Finch Hatton was in the mid 1900s as the terminus of the Pioneer Valley railway line. The town further developed when the Cattle Creek sugar mill opened in 1906. A supporting infrastructure of schools, theatres and halls was established, as well as residences for both workers and management. The town became the main centre of the Pioneer Valley hinterland and by the 1920s was the third largest township (after Mackay and Sarina) in the region.
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".
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