Plans are afoot to return the Woolgoolga Great War Memorial to a place of prominence – and the local community is now being urged to have its say on the ‘if’ and the ‘where’.
The towering 4.4-metre sandstone and granite structure was dismantled in 1999 and been in storage since – with the Woolgoolga RSL sub-Branch and Rotary working together to push for its restoration and installation in a public place.
The Northern Beaches Memorial Project team estimates the cost of the works at $80,000. City of Coffs Harbour Council resolved at its July meeting to support the project in principle and to consult the community.
Public submissions are now open on the City’s Have Your Say webpage to gauge support for the project, and to see which of three potential locations is preferred:
- Two sites within the Woolgoolga Beach Reserve;
- An area on the corner of Beach and Wharf streets, Woolgoolga, which is identified in the adopted Woolgoolga Town Centre Masterplan.
When the memorial was taken down 26 years ago, the marble name-plaques of the WWI and WWII Fallen were removed and relocated to the replacement memorial at the Woolgoolga Diggers Club. It is proposed these name plaques would be reinstated on the 1923 Memorial.
Public submissions can be made until 9 November.
A report will be brought back to Council for consideration after the community consultation process.
