The Kiama Memorial Arch was a feature of the Remembrance Day ceremony held in Hindmarsh Park on 11 November between 10.30 and 11:30 am. The Arch has quite its own history.

The Memorial Arch was unveiled on April 25, 1925, by Sir George Fuller Premier of NSW.

He made a poignant comment at the unveiling that ‘When the stone has doth crumbled away, the memory of the ANZACs would still be green.’

The Memorial cost 1040 pounds and 108 pounds was subscribed at the unveiling ceremony with 200 pounds still owed. The designs were prepared by Charles Rosenthal and Day, architects and the builder was W.G. Fazer of Sydney who used brown marble and local building materials. 

The idea for the arch came from Colonel Colin Dunmore Fuller DSO who was the younger brother of the NSW Premier Sir George Fuller, who lived at Dunmore House. Colonel Fuller served in the 6th Light Horse Regiment. 

From the end of WW1, a soldiers' memorial fund was established with a number of ideas proposed, such as a drinking fountain, a memorial tower or a community hall.

Gerringong built the Gerringong Soldiers Memorial Hall and Jamberoo established the marble honour rolls in their Memorial Arch built at the original Jamberoo School of Arts which is now demolished. The new entrance gates to the Jamberoo School of Arts now incorporate the honour rolls. 

A final meeting was held in March 1924 to debate the final proposals, a memorial hospital or a memorial park? The well-attended meeting heard Colonel Fuller speak persuasively in favour of the memorial park. Surprisingly the meeting voted against him, in favour of a memorial district hospital. 

However Colonel Fuller did not give up and at a further meeting in the town hall a week later spoke even more persuasively for a memorial to "those whose bodies lie in distant lands.” An opposing speaker J. Drennan spoke against saying ‘he had relatives lying in the soil of France and did not want a big stone stuck up in the street as it would be of no benefit to anyone.” The debate was well recorded in the Kiama Independent and Illawarra Mercury at the time and in a more recent article in the Mercury by Dr Karl James. 

This time the mood swayed to support Colonel Fuller and a large majority voted for the monument and park, as Kiama residents can see for themselves today in 2023.

Dr Karl James made the eloquent point that every name represents an individual life, someone’s son and someone’s brother.  The example of Walter and Frank Farquharson who both died in WW1 and whose bodies never returned were a well-known example to the Kiama community at the time from their many letters home published in the paper before they died. 

As recorded in the actual Arch itself and on the NSW War Memorials Register, The Kiama Memorial Arch has a large number of memorial plaques, the Unveiling plaque from April 25 1925, a Plaque to mark the service of HMAS Kiama during WW2 in the Pacific during 1944 and 1946.

Four Panels bear the names of local citizens who have served Australia in times of War and conflict besides WW1.

The West face of the north pillar has an inscription that lists the names from 1914 -1918. 200 men from Kiama served, and 44 never made it home.  The west face of the south pillar has the honour roll of those who served in WW2 from 1939-1945.

The Wall of Remembrance next to the Arch is named after Gordon Grellman, former Kiama and Jamberoo RSL member and WW2 pilot. This was unveiled by Mayor Brian Petschler on 11 November 2013.

The Wall is unique in Australia as it allows a memorial record of anyone who has served in any force anywhere that was an Ally and not an Enemy of Australia. The application had to be made by a direct relative of that person currently living in Kiama and that person proposed had to be now deceased. 

You don't have to be deceased to get your name on the Memorial Arch. The rules on the Memorial Arch are extremely strict and the name must have been born or recruited in Kiama, with several names not on the Arch that are regarded as eligible.

The King’s Penny set in the top right of the Wall of Remembrance was supplied by James Seader who was the great nephew of James Sydney Seader whose name appears on the Arch. The Penny known as the Dead Man’s Penny was issued to families of all those killed in action on the Allied side in WW1 by King George V.

Recently the Memorial Arch developed a lean, observed since 1953, due to the soft ground it was built. A 2-degree lean was identified with the 200-tonne structure which was sitting on approximately 6 metres of fill, in the area where Kiama had its original tip in the early days of European settlement. A creek also used to run through the area and was now piped. It was estimated piles some 11 to 12 metres would need to be driven to reach the hard basalt rock and a supporting column was built underneath to stabilize the structure. The work was completed in 2015.

At one point Kiama Council considered demolition of the Arch.

 Former Kiama and Jamberoo RSL Sub branch President, Colonel Ian Pullar, told the Bugle the Sub Branch insisted on a complete replica being built at the cost of more than $ 5 million if that occurred. The branch had been very disappointed with the work done to replace the Jamberoo Memorial Arch when the new Jamberoo Arts Centre was built. The drains were instead fully restored and rebuilt and the Arch now sits on steel and concrete underpinnings that go 18 metres down to the bedrock.

Ian Pullar said, “if a Tsunami engulfed Kiama, the Arch would still be there when the water receded.”