October 28, 2026
The Kingaroy-Memerambi RSL Sub-Branch has been assured the damage to the historic Memorial Park Rotunda will be repaired in time for Remembrance Day commemorations.
Vandals attacked the building earlier this month, stripping the rendering off several blocks.
Sub-Branch secretary Steven Reynolds said the repairs would be carried out by the South Burnett Regional Council, and he had been told the repairs would be completed by November 11.
* * *
The History Of Memorial Park’s Rotunda
How southburnett.com.au reported the history of the Rotunda after its last major upgrade in 2017.
At that time Brisbane heritage expert Brian Maxwell and his crew completed the first phase of a $198,000 restoration project to return the memorial rotunda to robust health.
The rotunda in Memorial Park was officially opened on June 29, 1932 by Major-General Sir William Glasgow, who travelled to Kingaroy especially for the occasion.
Newspapers of the day record that the official ceremony was held on a fine afternoon, beginning with a parade through the town headed by the Kingaroy Citizens Band and the Caledonian Pipe Band.
Kingaroy’s shops closed between 2:00pm and 4:00pm to mark the day, and after the ceremonies concluded Kingaroy Shire Councillors held a dinner for Sir William at the Club Hotel. Later in the evening, a Peace Ball was held at the Olympia Theatre, and was well attended.
The Soldiers Memorial Band Rotunda and the Stone Of Remembrance – now more commonly known as the Memorial Rotunda and catafalque – were built for a total cost of £595/15/- using money that had been raised from public donations as well as money provided by Kingaroy Shire Council.
However the origins of Kingaroy’s war memorial really stretch back to July 4, 1919, when the Warwick Daily News reported that Mr A. Youngman had donated land opposite Kingaroy State School to be used as a public park and war memorial site.
In 1921, Memorial Park park was laid out by the curator of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mr J.J. Leadbetter, who proposed putting up a cross on a granite base as a war memorial, as well as tennis and croquet courts.
But this idea wasn’t taken up and a flagstaff was erected in the park instead, with the first flags unfurled on Armistice Day (now known as Remembrance Day) the same year.
In 1922, a ceremony to mark the foundation of a memorial was suggested, and this occurred on Anzac Day in 1923.
Memorial Park was originally run by the Kingaroy Memorial Park committee who began collecting public donations for a war memorial in the early 1920s.
They also planted the palm trees that still surround the memorial area.
But in 1929, they decided to hand responsibility for the park over to Kingaroy Shire Council however they sought to retain the money they had collected so a memorial would eventually be built.
Council appears to have agreed to take over control of the park, but only after the completion of the memorial.
In December 1930, the Kingaroy-Memerambi-Kumbia RSSILA (now the Kingaroy-Memerambi RSL Sub-Branch) held a meeting at the Kingaroy Hotel where it was discussed that rather than build a memorial, the Council should build a Soldiers Memorial Hall “like Kumbia or Wooroolin” instead.
But Council resisted and went on to award a tender for the Bandstand Rotunda and Stone Of Remembrance at its February meeting in 1932.
The granite used in both structures is believed to be locally quarried; and the rotunda’s columns and brickwork were made from precast concrete.
The official opening occurred just a few months later.
- Related article: Big Day For An 85-Year-Old
