Australia's monuments take on many distinct forms, including statues, fountains, natural landmarks and buildings. While some monuments of Australia hold a national significance, many are constructed and maintained by local community groups, and are primarily significant on a local scale. Although Australia's monuments have many roles, including as tourist attractions, their primary purpose is to "safeguard, prolong or preserve social memory into the future". This social memory may relate to anything from colonisation to local industry to sports. The monuments of Australia reflect the nation's social and political history and by memorialising select moments, contribute to shaping how Australian history is told. Although a significant portion of Australia is desert, the population is highly urbanised and the cities contain some noteworthy monuments.
Pre-settlement monuments
Uluru Uluru is a sandstone rock formation in the Northern Territory, with the closest large settlement being Alice Springs, 450 kilometres away. The formation is a protected world heritage siteCentre, U., 2021. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. [online] Whc.unesco.org. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/447 and is an important sacred site to the Indigenous Peoples of the area, the Pitjantjatjara. The site has been a large tourist attraction to the public since the 1930s, garnering over 250,000 visitors a yearCamperchamp.com.au. 2021. Northern Territory: Alice Springs, Uluru – Tourism Statistics 2020. [online] Available at: https://camperchamp.com.au/statistics/australia/northern-territory-tourism/#:~:text=Over%20250%2C000%20people%20visit%20Uluru%20each%20year and the land and the surrounding area is also known for its large amounts of agriculture, harbouring exotic flora and fauna.Camperchamp.com.au. 2021. Northern Territory: Alice Springs, Uluru – Tourism Statistics 2020. [online] Available at: https://camperchamp.com.au/statistics/australia/northern-territory-tourism/#:~:text=Over%20250%2C000%20people%20visit%20Uluru%20each%20yea
History Uluru is estimated to have first started forming approximately 1.5 billion years ago, where rocks took place to form a protolith.Young, David N.; Duncan, N.; Camacho, A.; Ferenczi, P.A.; Madigan, T.L.A. (2002). Ayers Rock, Northern Territory, Map Sheet GS52-8 (2nd edition) (Map). 1:250 000. Northern Territory Geological Survey. Geological Map Series Explanatory Notes. Over the next billion years, it underwent various geological phenomena such as the Petermann and Alice Springs Orogenies that eventuated in the complete formation of the rock, approximately 300–400 million years ago.
Significance to the Aboriginal population Uluru is also known as Ayers Rock, named by William Gosse, an Australian explorer, in honour of the governor of Australia in 1873, Sir Henry Ayers, when Goss became the first non-Aboriginal person to ever see Uluru. However, the name Uluru predates that of Ayers Rock by almost 10,000 years, given to it by the local indigenous population, the Pitjantjatjara people. According to the Aboriginal Australian creation tradition, known as the Dreaming, the featureless Earth took shape when the ancestors began to cause rocks to form through singing, along with other means of creating. The songs of creation are still sung by the Aboriginal people on Songlines, traditional journeys undertaken to maintain a connection to the land. The formations along Uluru's surface are believed by the Aboriginal to be physical manifestations of the events that occurred there, such as a depiction of a mouth silently screaming in anguish, and a scar that runs with water.
Today Having been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Uluru is a major tourist destination, with over 300,000 tourists visiting every year. Until recently, it was legal for tourists to climb Uluru, but the law has since changed at the request of the Aboriginal elders.
Much infrastructure was built to accommodate for the climb; 138 steel posts were installed in the years of 1966 and 1976, along with a chain reaching a length of 450 metres that could bear a person weighing 125 kilograms holding onto the chain at a 45-degree angle. An octagonal cairn was also built at the top of Uluru, made of stones that were cemented together and painted to blend in with the colour of Uluru. To prevent further climbing that was in conflict with express wishes of the elders and thus maintain its cultural heritage, the board of the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park decided to close the climb and remove the steel infrastructure from around Uluru. The board decided that the process of removing the climb infrastructure should not leave any visible evidence of the climbing posts on Uluru; that it should avoid or minimise any physical damage to Uluru in the process; that no part of the steel posts should remain exposed above the rock surface; and that the material used to fill the holes left by the posts should be durable and long lasting, and made to match the colour and texture of the existing surface of Uluru.
Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is a large expanse of coral reef lifeforms and animals located off the coast of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It is the largest known reef system in the world, spreading over 344,400 square kilometres, being visible from space.Oceanservice.noaa.gov. 2021. What is the largest living structure on Earth?. [online] Available at: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/gbrlargeststructure.html It is one of the seven wonders of the world and is listed as a world heritage site as of 1981.Wayback.archive-it.org. 2021. Protected Areas Programme -. [online] Available at: https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080511100752/http://www.unep-wcmc.org/protected_areas/data/wh/gbrmp.htmlElibrary.gbrmpa.gov.au. 2021. Nomination of the Great Barrier Reef by the Commonwealth of Australia for Inclusion in the World Heritage List : United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. [online] Available at: https://elibrary.gbrmpa.gov.au/jspui/handle/11017/265 It has considerable importance to local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, holding cultural significance that dates back 40,000 years.
Blue Mountains The Blue Mountains is a series of Mountains situated on the Western border of Greater Sydney, NSW.Gregory's New South Wales State Road Map, Map 220, 11th Edition, Gregory's Publishing Company The range is a smaller part of a much larger series of mountains known as the Great Dividing Range, which defines a large part of the Eastern Coast of Australia. The Blue mountains have been significant in Aboriginal History, with two main peoples being located within the region, the Gundungurra people in the northern part and the Darug people in the southern. It was listed as a world heritage area in 2000, with roughly 10,000 square miles being listed.Centre, U., 2021. Greater Blue Mountains Area. [online] Whc.unesco.org. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/917
Daintree Rainforest The Daintree Rainforest is in Queensland, and is the largest rainforest within Australia, spanning roughly 12,000 square kilometres.Daintree Discovery Centre. 2021. About the Daintree Rainforest – Information & Facts. [online] Available at: https://www.discoverthedaintree.com/daintree-rainforest-6/ The rainforest was placed on the world heritage list in 1998,Centre, U., 2021. Wet Tropics of Queensland. [online] Whc.unesco.org. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/486/ and hosts more than 400,000 visitors a year, serving as one of the largest tourist attractions in the Northern part of Australia. The rainforest dates back nearly 180,000 Millions years making it one of the oldest rainforests in the world, and it holds a variety of important plant, animal life and ecosystems unique to Australia.Stork, N. and Turton, S., 2011. Living in a dynamic tropical forest landscape. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
Bondi Beach Bondi Beach is a popular tourist attraction spanning 1 km of Eastern Sydney.Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. 2021. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. [online] Available at: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/bondi The location is an important part of Australian culture, holding significance in sport (such as the city to surf race) as well as entertainment (such as Bondi Rescue). The area was originally occupied by local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, demonstrated through the recordings of rock carvings and paintings,Dictionaryofsydney.org. 2021. Bondi rock carvings | The Dictionary of Sydney. [online] Available at: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/bondi_rock_carvings but today serves as one of the largest tourist attractions in the country, with over 2.7 million people visiting in 2016.2021. Bondi Visitor Profile. [ebook] Sydney. Available at: https://www.destinationnsw.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Bondi-Visitor-Profile-YE-Dec-2016.pdf
Kakadu National Park The Kakadu National Park is in the Northern Territory, covering nearly 20,000 square kilometres of land.Parksaustralia.gov.au. 2021. [online] Available at: https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/discover/amazing-facts/ The land holds significant flora and fauna, holding nearly 2000 species of flora, and thousands of different species of fauna within the area.2021. Wildlife. [ebook] Australia: Kakadu National Park. Available at: https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/pub/animals.pdf It is also important due to the local indigenous population, whose culture is heavily invested in the natural features of the park believed to have been living in the area for over nearly 40,000 years, which can be viewed through the abundance of rock art in the national park. Furthermore, the area is heavily involved in the exploration and discovery of the country, as well as in the mineral industry of Australia.
Post-settlement monuments
Queen Victoria Building
The Queen Victoria Building (QVB) is a Federation Romanesque style building built in the late 19th century. Located in Sydney's central business district, it is mainly a shopping centre.
History The Queen Victoria Building was designed by architect George McRae in 1888, in response to a move to demolish the markets that were previously in George Street. McRae produced four different designs for the proposed building. Of the four designs that McRae produced for the proposed building, the design which was reminiscent of Romanesque architecture was selected. Construction for the sandstone building began in 1893 and was completed in 1898. Despite being a three-storey arcade containing two hundred shops, the building did not garner much popularity, and became subject to outer and inner renovations in 1917–1918.
A plan was announced in 1959 by the then Lord Mayor of Sydney, Harry Jensen, to demolish the building and have it replaced by a civic square and a car park. The fate of building was not decided until twelve years later in 1971, when the Council of Sydney decided to let the building remain as a testament to the heritage it possessed.
In 1980 a bid by the Malaysian property developer Ipoh Garden Berhad was accepted by the council to restore the building on a profit-sharing lease of 99 years. Thus, a major renovation process was begun, where internal aspects of the building such as offices, floors, and partitions were demolished in the name of the restoration of the building. It was eventually reopened in 1986 and became one of Sydney's most popular shopping centres and tourist destinations.