Funding for Albany ANZAC commemoration

• $5.84m to restore Mt Clarence, including $2.84m from Royalties for Regions
• Allocation of $2.2m towards the ANZAC Interpretive Centre
• Department of the Premier and Cabinet to take a lead role in planning events to commemorate the ANZAC centenary

The Liberal-National Government will contribute more than $8million towards the commemoration of the ANZAC centenary in 2015.

Announcing the funding in Albany today, Premier Colin Barnett said $2.2million would fund the construction of an ANZAC Interpretive Centre on Mt Clarence, which complemented the $6.5million from the Federal Government.

The funding is subject to a business plan being developed for the ongoing independent operation of the interpretive centre.

The State Government will also allocate $5.84million for significant restoration and new works on Mt Clarence, including creating an Avenue of Honour, a new lookout platform and refurbishing the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial.

Mr Barnett, who was visiting the town with South-West MLCs Robyn McSweeney and Colin Holt said it was important the work was completed by November 2014, to mark the centenary of the first convoy of Australian soldiers leaving Albany for Gallipoli.

Mt Clarence offers a view of the harbour from which the soldiers sailed in 1914 and it was the last glimpse many WWI soldiers had of Australia.  It will be the focus of events to mark the ANZAC Day centenary in April 2015.

The Premier said this was one of several initiatives the State Government had planned for the commemoration and was in addition to the more than $2million the State Government had already spent on the Albany Peace Park.

Mr Barnett said the Department of the Premier and Cabinet would oversee several events and projects between 2014 and 2018 to mark the ANZAC centenary and other milestones from WWI and Australia's military history.

Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls welcomed the initiative.

"The ANZAC centenary is a major event for the nation and the State and it is very important that there is appropriate co-ordination and funding for this event and its associated activities," Mr Grylls said.

"Albany, which had such significance for so many soldiers and their families, is an appropriate place to remember the great sacrifices so many Australians made - and are continuing to make - in war."

      Fact File

• The first and second ANZAC convoys left from Albany for Egypt where the troops trained before being landed at Gallipoli. These convoys consisted of troop ships from all over Australia, as well as New Zealand
• For the thousands of Australian soldiers this was their last chance to walk on Australian soil
• Albany claims to have held the first dawn service in 1918 when a young Anglican chaplain, Padre Arthur Ernest White, who served as chaplain with the 44th Battalion AIF, celebrated the Requiem Mass for the Battle Dead at St. John's, Albany

Premier's office - 6552 5000