Sydney architectural firm, with local artist, wins National Design Competition for the Australian War Memorial in London’s Hyde Park.

The memorial commemorates all Australians who fought in either World War I or World War II. The project completion date was timed to coincide with the 85th anniversary of Armistice Day, 11 November 2003.

The design for the memorial was selected as a result of a limited, by invitation, design competition between twelve of Australia’s leading architectural firms. A panel of selectors comprising veteran representatives, architects and art advisers was convened to oversee development of the brief and to assess the entries. Air Vice-Marshal Gary Beck AO (Retd) Director, Office of Australian War Graves, chaired the panel and presented the preferred scheme to the Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable John Howard MP, who gave it his full backing.

At the beginning of the competition design process, Peter Tonkin flew to London to visit the Hyde Park corner site.

While Janet Laurence and the design team of Neil Mackenzie, Heidi Pronk and Richard Healy from Tonkin Zulaikha Greer worked up 5 ideas in Sydney, Peter begins the work of sketching and testing the proposed ideas on the actual site. A 20 page fax is sent to him from the design team in Australia, to which Peter responds with 25 pages of sketches, schemes and site analysis. His reaction to the site is overwhelming.