KIAMA's Memorial Arch has received a valuable injection of funding, meaning much-needed works will begin in the near future.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The arch has received $20,000 funding under the state government's Community War Memorial Grant Fund.
This grant follows $10,000 previously secured to stabilise the memorial.
The $20,000 grant will help stabilise the arch and also install brown marble name plates.
Kiama-Jamberoo RSL sub-branch secretary and Kiama councillor Dennis Seage welcomed Kiama MP Gareth Ward's efforts to secure the funding.
"This funding will enable council to undertake important works which include the re-establishment of the drainage from the corner of Red Rooster across to the Memorial Arch, following a recent geotechnical report which found a major rupture in need of urgent replacement.
"This additional $20,000 will enable these works to begin in the very near future.
"Once we start we are hopeful of obtaining further funding in addition to that put aside by Kiama Council to ensure that our heritage-listed Memorial Arch is made completely stable within this council's current four-year delivery program and within the four-year Centenary of Anzac commemoration term, which commences on August 4."
Federal funding is also being sought for additional works to repair the leaning arch.
Cr Seage believes future Centenary of Anzac celebration plans could potentially attract a crowd of thousands in Kiama.
The Kiama-Jamberoo RSL Sub-Branch has sought the support of state and federal members for its plan to adorn the Kiama lighthouse with an image of an Australian digger.
The Sub-Branch has applied to have a three-metre high, 2.4-metre wide version of the Centenary of Anzac logo painted on the western side of the lighthouse for the four-year commemoration of World War I.
The plan requires the thumbs up from the Commonwealth Department of Veterans Affairs and NSW Crown Lands.
Cr Seage has said the lighthouse proposal had the full support of Mr Ward, who would correspond with the minister relaying "strong recommendations" that the logo be painted on the western side of the lighthouse, and remain there for the four-year commemoration period.
"The lighthouse and arch are probably our two most photographed icons," Cr Seage said earlier this year.
"It's our intention to hold our dawn service in 2015 at Kiama lighthouse ... we would expect thousands to be there."
