Eastern Tower
To commemorate the new name, an Australian flag was placed on the Eastern tower top and a New Zealand flag on the western tower top.
Eastern Tower
Anzac Monument at western end - 2007
A monument was placed at the western end. The original plaque from the opening of the bridge in 1995 (lower)
Above it, the plaque celebrating the renaming to ANZAC Bridge in 1998
(Before the statue was placed)
Anzac Monument at western end
A four metre bronze statue of an Australian World War 1 Digger was placed on the western end monument on the 25th April 2000.
A handful of sand from Gallipoli rests under the foot of the digger as a permanent connection with comrades who fell and remain at the Gallipoli Battlefield in Turkey. 6.
The statue, funded by the NSW state government, was designed by New Zealand born artist Alan Somerville.
On the 16th June 2007, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma announced a statue of a New Zealand World War 1 soldier will be placed on the south western approach across from the Australian soldier. Alan Somerville will again be the designer. Read the New Zealand Herald story and the Sydney Morning Herald story.
The New Zealand soldier statue was formally unveiled by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma on 27th April 2008.
The new statue now faces the Australian digger who has been standing on the western end of the bridge since 2000.
Prime Minister Clark said the Australian digger has now been joined by his mate.
"Symbolising the extraordinary and close friendship between New Zealand and Australia"
The New Zealand soldier 27th April 2008. The top plaque is yet to be placed
The New Zealand soldier 27th April 2008
The lower New Zealand plaque
On Anzac Day 2000 the NSW Premier, the Hon. Bob Carr, unveiled two "Rising Sun" military badges placed on the northern and southern faces at the middle of the bridge.
Northern face trom Jacksons Point
The badges were manufactured by the Phoenix Foundry of Uralla, a small town in the New England Tablelands region of New South Wales. Cast in ten sections and subsequently bolted and welded together, each badge measures 3.04 metres wide by 2.20 metres high and weighs just under one tonne. 15
Rising Sun Badge on the northern face
Rising Sun Badge from the water
photo courtesy of Graham Mundy
Digger History provides a comprehensive history of the Rising Sun Badge.