Tobruk
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Located at the intersection of Saw Avenue and May Drive within Kings Park,this Memorial honours those who defended Tobruk during the seige by German and Italian Armies April to December, 1941. In December 1966 the first Tobruk Memorial was dedicated, based on the design of the Memorial in the Tobruk Cemetery,Libya, it was constructed by G.C.Smith & Co. of O'Connor from Donnybrook Stone. A 25 pound Field Howitzer was positioned at the rear and a fig tree (in rememberance of the Fig tree that became a landmark on the Tobruk battlefield).Over the years it became a regular target for anti-war graffitti which proved almost impossible to remove from the porous stone. In 1984 the Rats of Tobruk Assn. resolved to replace the Memorial with one more vandal proof alhough still of the same design. With the help of the State Government a sum of $25,000.00 was raised and the Memorial rebuilt using red polished granite (reputed to be the hardest stone available in Australia) imported from Streaky Bay, South Australia. The New Memorial was completed n 1985. During 2002 the Memoral was renovated,fenced in , new flagpoles erected,and the plaques shown above were added, one to each of the front six pillars, at a total cost of $40,000.00; this money donated by Assn.members,State and Federal Govts.,the Lotteries Commission and Dept.of Veterans Affairs.Time having taken it's toll, the *"Rats of Tobruk" Assn. was disbanded in September,2002.
*An honorific derived from Lord Haw-Haw's ( a renegade Englishman who broadcast propoganda on German radio )remark that the defenders to survive would have to "live like rats in the ground"
