Hobart Cenotaph 3.66

Hobart Cenotaph,, is the main commemorative military monument for the Australian state of Tasmania. It is located in the capital Hobart in a prominent position on the Queens Domain, on a small rise overlooking the city and River Derwent. The Cenotaph sits directly above what was once the location of the Queens Battery.The Cenotaph is the centre of Anzac Day commemoration services at dawn and mid-morning, and is the destination of the marching procession. On Anzac Day at the break of dawn, a lone bugler always plays the Last Post.HistoryThe Hobart Cenotaph is an Art Deco reinterpretation of a traditional Egyptian Obelisk. The Cenotaph was originally erected to commemorate the war dead of Tasmania from World War I, but has had subsequent additions made for all conflicts since then in which Tasmanian soldiers have served. The original inscription reads: "Lest We Forget", and "1914–1919". Although World War I ended on 11 November 1918, the inscription is dated '1919' in commemoration of the Treaty of Versailles which was signed on 28 June 1919. There are no names recorded upon the Cenotaph itself.An Anzac Day commemoration was held there in 1925 during construction. During the ceremony, a casket of solid zinc which bore the names of the 522 Tasmanians who were killed in World War I was set into the base of the shaft. It was unveiled on 13 December 1925 and replaced a previous wooden structure.