Memorial to Australians in the Spanish Civil War

After unsuccessful approaches over the years to the Australian War Memorial with requests that the institution acknowledge the Australian men and women who served in the International Brigades, in 1992 the Australian Capital Territory Commission offered a site for a Spanish civil war memorial in Canberra, the nation’s capital. Located in the beautiful Lennox Gardens beside Lake Burley Griffen, the monument was erected by the Friends of the Australians in Spain committee: Len Fox, Amirah Inglis, Netta Burns and Judith Keene. It was unveiled on 11 December 1993 by Lloyd Edmonds, the last surviving veteran of the Australian volunteers in the Spanish International Brigades. 

The monument consists of a freestanding wall of Australian sandstone blocks above head-height with brick trim and sweeping brick approaches. On the face of the monument, a map of Spain, cast in copper, identifies the main civil war battle sites with a brief description in English and Spanish of the history of the conflict and the contribution of the Australian men and women to the Republican cause. The site is shaded by a  row of Spanish olive trees planted by the Spanish Ambassador to Australia, Antonio Nuñez García-Sauco, in honour of his father, a Republican air-force pilot, and in remembrance of the historic connection during the Spanish Civil War between the people of Spain and the people of Australia.  

Over the years there have been several additional efforts to raise a public plaque elsewhere to mark the Australian involvement in the Spanish civil war. Currently a Melbourne group has begun a serious attempt to create a memorial in the Victorian capital. It has been propelled by the family and associates of Kevan Rebecchi, an Australian International Brigader who died in the last days of the international withdrawals from Spain. He was buried in Catalonia in the Vich cemetery from where for several years a local doctor-cum-historian was sufficiently intrigued by the Australian grave to research and write its history, in the process of which he has become close to the Australian Rebecchi clan. 

It is fitting to use Nettie Palmer’s words as a coda to the Australian section of this Virtual  Museum to the Spanish Civil War.  

‘While those who worked for the Spanish Republic were few and not powerful and seemed often to be shouting against the wind, it was a brave chapter in Australian history and one about which we all should know’.