The two themes of the monument – one visible on each side – show respectively the prelude and the epilogue to war, exemplifying both the willingness of youth to answer the call of duty and the sacrifices they had to make.

[4] In response to these deaths, Archibald Peake, the premier of South Australia, asked the state parliament to fund a memorial commemorating the victory and the sacrifice of those who had fought and fallen.

[5] With the passing of this motion, the South Australian Government became the first in Australia to elect to build a memorial to the soldiers of the First World War.

[15] This location was counter to previous suggestions: a 1919 survey of architects had proposed that the memorial should be built on Montefiore Hill,[16] and in 1923 the plans involved erecting it at the rear of Government House rather than at the front.

These included Dame Nellie Melba's proposal to build a carillon of bells;[14][18] a suggestion by Simpson Newland to turn Anzac Highway into a "Way of Honour" by adding triumphal arches to each end;[18] and Walter Charles Torode's plan to build a "metal and marble" monument, 30 metres (98 feet) high, on the top of Mount Lofty with an electric car to carry people to the summit.

[6] Eventually a total of 28 architectural firms registered their intent to submit entries to the competition – a lower number than expected, possibly on account of work on proposals for the new Adelaide railway station.

[20] Although most of the judging had been completed before the fire, it was suggested that the committee could use what they had learned from the entrants to propose a new competition with greater clarity about the requirements led to naught.

Several left-wing politicians argued that the grounds of Government House should be turned over to the State and used to build the memorial; conservatives desired to retain the status quo.

As with the first competition, all entrants had to be South Australian British subjects, and all entries were to be judged anonymously, but this time there was to be only one assessor: John Smith Murdoch, chief architect for the Commonwealth of Australia.

[28] After examining the submissions, on 15 January 1927, the design by Louis Laybourne Smith, (one of the principals of the architectural firm Woods, Bagot, Jory & Laybourne–Smith) was selected by Murdoch as the winner.

Thus Laybourne Smith was responsible for drawing and submitting the final design,[6] although he was clear to highlight the role Bagot played in the "architectural conception" of the monument.

[29] Although the firm was to be awarded 6% of the cost of the memorial, the principals refused all but enough to cover their own expenses, asking instead that residues (approximately £1000) be placed in a trust fund to pay for the upkeep of the work.

[30] Although this was seen as an altruistic act, Laybourne Smith was both a member of the National War Committee and sat on the sub-committee that drafted the rules of the competition, and thus it may have been considered "improper" to accept the money.

[32] Nevertheless, in writing his report on the result of the judging, Murdoch stated of the winning architect that he "depends almost entirely on the sculptor to tell the story of the memorial, employing in his design no more architecture than that required to successfully frame and set his sculptural subjects, and to provide accommodation to the extent asked for by the conditions".

Hoff had expressed reservations that a South Australian company would be capable of handling bronzes of the required size, but a test casting of the lion's head from the memorial was sufficient to overcome his concerns.

[36] Hore-Ruthven was introduced by the acting state premier, Bill Denny MC, whose involvement in the unveiling, according to Inglis, was unusual for a Labor politician.

[39] In 2001, the memorial's 70th anniversary year, a three-month remedial project was undertaken, restoring the bronze and stonework details and reinforcing the foundations.

[43] Standing at a height of over 14 m (46 ft), the structure was carefully placed back from North Terrace to provide space for "public gatherings of a ceremonial nature" and to allow for the proposed widening of the street.

[43] The monument is effectively a frame for two scenes – the prologue and the epilogue of war – depicted through Rayner Hoff's marble reliefs and bronze statues.

[51] Hoff, however, presented the sculptural group in the original naturalistic style, thus providing a "bridge between the Renaissance-style architecture and the Art Deco of the reliefs".

They stated that the "Arch of Triumph which was built in honour of a Caesar, a Napoleon, no longer expresses the feelings of modern democracy after an international struggle".

[1] Bronze tablets were mounted on one wall of the inner shrine to honour the war dead, for which the Returned Soldiers' League contributed £3,500.

Although the central square mile of the City of Adelaide is designed to the points of the compass, the monument sits at a 45-degree angle to North Terrace.