The centre stage of the Australian War Memorial has a new look.
The parade ground on which the eyes of the nation fall on Anzac Day now has neat terracing surrounding it to provide space for 4400 spectators.
Before it was closed off for the big $550 million rebuild, it was just surrounded by grassy banks.
"Previously on both sides of the parade ground were earth mounds," Memorial Director Matthew Anderson said.
"We've built some terracing. That provides accessibility. It provides a remarkable vantage for all the visitors to the War Memorial."
To get the look right, the builders went back to the quarry in Gosford from which the sandstone for the main building came in the first half of the last century and quarried identical stone for the new terracing.
The plan is to have the renewed parade ground ready for Anzac Day on April 25. That would mean that the parade then will be the first since 2019 to resemble the full parade as it was before the pandemic and then the closing off of much of the Memorial for the big upgrade.
"It's a tradition in the ACT to march to the national War Memorial," the president of the ACT Returned and Services League, John King, said,
"The Australian War Memorial is an iconic institution, and we are honoured to be the first veterans to march on the new parade ground.
"The veterans consider this parade ground as their hallowed ground. Every year, we haven't been able to be here in numbers. It's been a very sad situation. Even though we've met in other places in smaller numbers, it wasn't the same as all of us getting together as our brother and sister veterans."
There were Anzac Day parades during COVID but they were socially distanced so the numbers were much smaller than usual. They also looked out with service people and spectators spread out under pandemic rules.
The new parade ground is the first part of the War Memorial to get back to its old looks. By the end of the year, the southern entrance facing down Anzac Parade to Lake Burley Griffin will be reopened.
So, too, will new entrances to the side. This will involve the "oculus" - a ceiling window resembling an eye. It is the same shape as the dome above. Visitors will enter the memorial and be able to look up at the dome through the "oculus" window.
The full rebuild should be completed by 2028.
This year, the parade organizers hope to have 3000 veterans marching and, such is age, occasionally in wheelchairs. The RSL chief executive in the ACT Kimberley Hicks urged people who ant to take part to register.
The march is to start at 9.30 am and pass up Anzac Parade to the War Memorial.
It is to be addressed by Afghanistan veteran Damien Thomlinson who lost both his legs after the vehicle he was in drove over a Taliban bomb on a night patrol in April, 2009.
