Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial

The memorial takes visitors on a journey to a different time and place, where heroism, sacrifice and mateship were the defining characteristics of the prisoners of war.

Between the 1950s and 1990s surviving prisoners of war from the Ballarat region met regularly and various plans for the establishment of a focal point for commemoration were periodically discussed.

With significant support from the Ballarat branch of the Returned and Services League (RSL) of Australia, a local sculptor, Peter Blizzard, was commissioned to design a concept for the memorial.

Funding was provided through lotteries, private donations, benevolent organisations (most notably Tattersall's), the City of Ballarat, local businesses, and finally the Federal and Victorian State Governments.

The Ballarat RSL, assisted by volunteers, worked for over 10 years to compile names to form the first national database of Australian prisoners of war.