Hey all - I have been doing some work in Canberra of late, and last week photographed some of the dioramas at the Australian War Memorial.

Dioramas have been a major part of the displays there since it was established in 1941, but in recent years 1:1 dioramas have become a feature.

Anyway, pictures are worth a thousand words:

Pozieres 1916:



Dernacourt 1918:



P40E Kittyhawk:



Hawker Sea Fury:



Kapyong, Korea, 1950:



UH1B, Vietnam 1967:









Australian M113A1 1966-67:





Avro Lancaster with crew members in every position:



And I could go on, but I will probably blow this site's bandwidth!

Needless to say, if you're ever in Australia's capital, the Memorial is worth the look!

Haven't been there for a few years but it is the one place that EVERY Australian should go to at least once in their lives. Brilliant place; and keep the photos coming Mick!

Gday Mick
Thanks for the reminder. They are extremely well made and even as a little tacker, the
WWI scenes stuck in my head for ages!
Brad

AWM's displays are very impressive. The Kapyong diorama is very well done... I missed it when I was there in 2004...

Thanks for the pictures Mick.

Mick

Great photos mate.

Is G for George back down on the ground? I was last there just before they closed the Aircraft hall to revamp it and the word was that they were going to hang George from the ceiling, which I thought would be a pity as it was interesting to look through the rear turret into the gloom of the fuselage.

Did you get to the Treloar Centre? It is where they have tons more stuff in storage as the AWM is not big enough to display everything. They have a turret from each the Emden and the first Sydney, heaps of captured items from the desert campaign and plenty of aircraft fuselages sitting beside their wings. I was sorry that I didn't have the time (or money) to do the floor guided tour to get up close to (and photograph) many of those items.

I have been to the AWM a number of times over the last 40 years and I remember as a young fella standing looking at the dioramas of Gallipoli and there was an old codger just down from me talking to his grand/greatgrand child. He had a few tears in his eyes and said that the depiction of the coastline (with all the places marked on it) was just as he remembered it in 1915.

Brian

Hi everyone,

There is actually a book published earlier this year " Moments in Time- Dioramas of the Australian War Memorial" which covers many of the displays in great detail. Costs about $25 and is available in all good bookshops now!

Jez

Hello Mick,
how are you keeping,l've heard very little of you of late cobber,thanks for the pics some wonderful ideas just sitting in front of me there...l'm going to have to go after that book its a must have, by the way could you tell me if there is any books on the paintings and bronzes within the memorial.....its been ten yrs since l visited there and have fallen some what behind, although l am back in the saddle sculpting for the open market......hope to hear from you Mick.

good stuff cobber..Phil...

Hi Mick!

Great Pictures! Mine sadly didn't turn out as well when I was there this January. It's a great place to go to, for anyone, not just Australians. Sadly my wife kept me from spending the whole day there...

Cheers!
Stef

nice pics, i see some celebrity look alikes,
#7 looks a little like lars ulrich from metallica
and the stern looking guy on #9 looks a little like a grumpy jeremy clarkson from top gear

it looks like it would be a great day out