Mundaring
Administrative centre for the Shire of Mundaring, the town is on the Great Eastern Highway 25 kms from Perth. During WW1 some 300 plus men of the Mundaring area volunteered for service,of this number 45 did not return. To honour these men the Returned Services League started fund raising activities in 1921 and by the following year had raised in excess of 85 pounds for the building of a Memorial. Work started at a site at the junction of Nichol St.and Great Eastern Highway adjacent to the school and opposite the Post Office and Police Station. In addition to the monument the Memorial site also included a rose garden extending down the centre of Nichol St.which was estabilished later(believed to be in the 1930s),the whole comprising an area of 11 perches granted by the West Australian Govt as a Class 'A' Reserve in October,1923. The Memorial was unveiled by Archbishop Reilly,former Chaplain General to the Australian Imperial Forces in May,1923,at this time the Memorial did not bear the names of the men who had died. After a period of fund raising, two Marble plaques recording the names of the 45 men were added and a further dedication and unveiling ceremony was held on 14th.March,1926;dignitaries present included MajorGeneral Sir Talbot Hobbs,Archbishop Reilly and Colonel Collett representing the RSL.The authorities are believed to have promised four trench mortars to incorporate into the site but,in the event,one machinegun was mounted(no longer there,believed to have been removed in 1970). After WW2 a third marble plaque was added recording the names of the 22 Mundaring men who were killed in that conflict whilst the dedication of the front of the die stone was changed to read" In Memory of the Glorious Dead 1914 to 1918,1939 to 1945 Greenmount Road District " below which is a small marble plaque showing three names with ranks.Recent development of a shopping centre on the school site has encroached onto the eastern side of Nichol St.so that the rose garden now forms partof the shopping centre boundary.
Note: Most of the historical detail obtained from a survey by Bruce Callow & Associates P/L for the Shire of Mundaring