Sculpture: Anzac boulder
Erection date: 20/12/1990
{The bronze relief on the front of the stone:
headed:}
Anzac Battlefield Ariburnu Savas Alani, 25.4.1915 - 20.12.1915
{The relief shows the Gallipoli peninsula with various features labelled: the front line, Agean Sea, Anzac Cove, Suvla Bay, etc.. 10 "plaque locations" and 10 "memorial locations" are listed and labelled on the relief, in English and in Turkish.}
Design - Ross J. Bastiaan, 1998
20th December 1990 {This year is puzzling: it seems to mean that the plaque was installed 8 years before it was designed.}
Sculptor – Ray Ewers
{On a plaque on the back of the stone:}
These boulders were brought from Bondi Beach to Battersea park in honour of the undying ANZAC spirit and the shores from which it came.
News Corporation, April 2000
This sandstone boulder (three quarters of a tonne) is one of 6 removed from a golf course next to Bondi Beach and delivered here by the Australian Rupert Murdoch in March 2000. The other 5 boulders are in the wallaby enclosure in the nearby Children's zoo, the animals being the descendants of those given to the Queen by the Australian Government on her coronation.
December 2020: We were contacted by Ross Bastiaan with some information about this memorial:
First, the confusion over the date: the memorial was cast in 1998, though sculpted in 1990. All 5 versions of the memorial were dated 1990 as that was the 75th anniversary of the battle.
I have done many bronze works (284 to date) in my life and I am always proud of the Battersea bronze as it was the first location in London where Australians could gather at dawn on 25 April each year to share the ANZAC Day Dawn Service.
It was designed by me, Ross Bastiaan, and Ray Ewers, (my art teacher, mentor and famous Australian sculptor known for his works in WW2). Ray did the initial outline of the topography. I refined that further in clay and added the front line and most of the fine details in topography as Ray did not know the area in Turkey . It was truly a shared commission but I ascribed the work to Ray in respect for all he gave me. There are similar plaques in the Australian War Memorial Canberra, Cambridge University, The Shrine of Remembrance Melbourne, New Zealand National Army Museum, Waioura, South Island.
I was commissioned by Jill Robertson (1940 - 2018), the then Duchess of Hamilton, an Australian of great drive. The stone was from Bondi Beach, Sydney, and funded by Rupert Murdoch, Robertson’s old friend. For years this memorial was the main site in London for the ANZAC Day commemoration each year. In 2003 the Australian Government funded a long overdue, Australian war memorial at Hyde Park Corner and Battersea Park receded in importance. I also have a larger bronze in the Imperial War Museum at the Hendon Annex which commemorates the UK POW of the Japanese.
Site: Battersea Park - 2 Australian war memorials (2 memorials)
SW11, Battersea Park
An Anzac Day service has been held in Battersea Park every year since 1995, on April 25, very early in the morning. From its arrival in 2000 this boulder featured in the ceremony. Until 2004, following the erection of the major Australian war memorial in Hyde Park Corner, when that location became the focus.
