Anzac Parade

Anzac Parade is a memorial, heritage route, running some 13 kilometres through both the City of Sydney and Randwick City Council LGAs from Paddington to La Perouse. The road and its story is fundamental to the history of Randwick as a municipality, shaping the development & character of the area.

The story of Anzac Parade starts with the Dharawal language speakers, particularly the local Cadigal/Gadigal clan, who were the original owners and occupiers of the Randwick Local Government Area (LGA), and whose connection to the area has been maintained to the present day. As a route, Anzac Parade has evolved from natural topography in association with Aboriginal walking tracks and the foundation of the Port Jackson colony in 1788. The first road from Sydney Cove to Botany Bay was created in 1790. The military history of the area surrounding Anzac Parade dates back to the first contact, and first conflicts, between the Aboriginal people and the British colonists.

The early establishment of Victoria Barracks at the northern most end of the Parade in the 1840s initiated the establishment of associated military facilities, that morphed into civil facilities, such as the Centennial Parklands, the Sydney Cricket Ground and the Royal Agricultural Society’s Showground (Now the Entertainment Quarter) which were drawn on by the military as a general resource in times of war, particularly since 1885 (Sudan); 1899 (Boer War); 1914 (World War I); 1939 (World War II) and their immediate aftermaths in the first half of the 20th Century.

After the toll of the 1915 Gallipoli campaign had sunk into public consciousness, the road that roughly bisects the eastern suburbs of Sydney between Moore Park in the north and La Perouse in the south, was named Anzac Parade in 1917, in a memorialisation of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) who had paraded along its route.

Anzac Parade is recognised as a ‘cultural route’ connecting a great number of important sites with a high degree of heritage significance locally, in the state and nationally under the themes of ‘defence’, ‘memorialization’ and ‘governing’. Anzac Parade as a defence themed cultural route serves as a spine connecting various military installations, memorials and as a literal place of parade.

Heritage Study

The Anzac Parade Heritage Study comprehensively explores the pre- and post-colonial history of Anzac Parade, recognising the corridor as a unique ‘cultural route’ connecting a number of historic sites with a high degree of heritage significance under the themes of ‘defence’, ‘memorialization’ and ‘governing’.

The study has found that there is no other road corridor or route in Australia which has the equivalent density of significant sites and surviving relics associated with the themes of defence, memorialisation and governance as Anzac Parade.

This connection is referenced in the numerous sites individually listed on heritage registers – state, local and national.

Read the Anzac Parade Heritage Study here PDF, 16105.68 KB

History Talk: History and Heritage of ANZAC Parade - by Dr Sue Rosen
Celebrating the Australian Heritage Festival’s theme 2021 of "Our Heritage for the Future", Dr Sue Rosen examines the origins of ANZAC Parade as a thoroughfare. She traces its history and development through incorporating First Nation heritage and post-European settlement.