{"id":462,"date":"2021-07-25T13:03:26","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T03:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/?p=462"},"modified":"2021-12-27T22:39:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T12:39:29","slug":"rockhamptons-war-trophies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/2021\/07\/25\/rockhamptons-war-trophies\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockhampton’s war trophies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Rockhampton: Remember When, Facebook, 11 August 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

First published in 2014 by Dell Dallach<\/a>, this image (above) notionally depicts her uncle William Holland in Rockhampton\u2019s Victoria Park<\/a>.

Taken some time between 1938 and 1960, it also features \u2013 in the background – one of the three large-calibre German guns gifted to the city in 1922 by the Queensland War Trophies Committee. Anticipating a flood of applications when it first convened in 1922, the Committee had determined to allocate these captured artillery pieces on the basis of population (rather than enlistments). In the event however, due to the \u2018apathy shown by many allottees\u2019 it found itself left with a surplus of field guns, mortars and machine guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public\u2019s diminishing interest in these bellicose symbols, already evident throughout Queensland in the years immediately following the Armistice, increased with each subsequent year and shows no sign still of abating. Initially displayed prominently within the Town Hall reserve, the City of Rockhampton\u2019s two trophy guns, a 10.5 cm leFH 16<\/a> (shown here in Dell Dallach\u2019s picture) and a 15 cm sFH13<\/a> had, by 1938, been unceremoniously removed to Victoria Park \u2013 near the city\u2019s north-western outskirts. In justifying the move the Chairman of Council\u2019s General purposes committee described the guns as \u2018unsightly.\u2019[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rockhampton’s war trophies would probably have been discarded, as happened with most others throughout Australia, had they not been re-purposed in 1960 as entrance ornaments for the city’s new war memorial swimming pool (Author).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This move can be seen as part of a much broader cultural shift caused, in part, by changing public attitudes towards war, military commemoration, town planning and aesthetics. Toowoomba\u2019s long-serving Mayor Annand for example had openly called for the removal of First and Second World War trophy guns from that city\u2019s public spaces, referring to them as ‘beastly weapons.’ In this respect he was not alone, similar campaigns having been successfully prosecuted in Maryborough and Brisbane (after WWII).[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1946 and 1962 Brisbane City Council\u2019s Parks Department systematically removed and disposed of every item of obsolete artillery from every public space within its sphere of influence. As a consequence, scores of colonial, Boer, World War I and World War II guns were removed from the city\u2019s parks and corralled into Council\u2019s Crosby Park Depot pending disposal. So determined was Council to be rid of these bellicose symbols that it even began openly advertising (Sunday Mail<\/em>, 2 March 1958) that it had guns to give away.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rockhampton City\u2019s war trophies fared somewhat better, being re-purposed for entrance guard duty firstly when the City\u2019s 2nd World War Memorial Pool opened in 1960, and again in 2016 when the 2nd World War Memorial Aquatic Centre was completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not so fortunate however was the 42nd<\/sup> Battalion\u2019s  sFH 02<\/a> 15cm howitzer, first displayed at the corner of Alma and Archer Streets in 1920.[4]<\/a> Thought to have been removed from public display late last century, it can only be glimpsed now through the cyclone wire fence encircling the Army\u2019s Western Street compound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 42nd Battalion’s war trophy – captured by the 41st Battalion – photographed in the 1980s at the corner of Alma and Archer Streets (Author).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1922 the Rockhampton Boys\u2019 Grammar School Trust was also allocated a captured 75 mm German mortar.[5]<\/a> Like so many other Australian war trophies, it is also thought to have been removed from public display long ago, and since discarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> \u201cRemoval of war trophies from Town Hall reserve,\u201d Morning Bulletin<\/em> (Rockhampton), 9 June 1938, 13, https:\/\/trove.nla.gov.au\/newspaper\/article\/55977196<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> \u201cWar Trophies,\u201d Morning Bulletin<\/em> (Rockhampton), 2 November 1934, 9, https:\/\/trove.nla.gov.au\/newspaper\/article\/54777990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> Seeds of Discontent, Queensland History Journal<\/em>, Vol.23 No.9 (May 2018) p. 563.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a>  \u201cWar trophies for Rockhampton,\u201d Morning Bulletin<\/em> (Rockhampton), 1 July 1920, 8, https:\/\/trove.nla.gov.au\/newspaper\/article\/53964282.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> \u201cTrench mortar for Boys’ Grammar School,\u201d Morning Bulletin<\/em> (Rockhampton), 27 July 1922, 8, https:\/\/trove.nla.gov.au\/newspaper\/article\/54004726.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First published in 2014 by Dell Dallach, this image (above) notionally depicts her uncle William Holland in Rockhampton\u2019s Victoria Park. Taken some time between 1938 and 1960, it also features \u2013 in the background – one of the three large-calibre German guns gifted to the city in 1922 by the Queensland War Trophies Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34,35,8],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-war-trophy","tag-rockhampton","tag-war-trophies","tag-war-trophy","wp-image-borders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.anzacwartrophies.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}