By Nick Wilson

By the time decades-old plans to create a national memorial to veterans of World War I came to fruition, a second great war was well under way.

The Australian War Memorial was officially opened on Remembrance Day, November 11, 1941, at its current site in the heart of the nation’s capital.

When then governor-general Lord Gowrie addressed the crowd, war had again broken out on Europe’s shores, lending an urgency to the occasion.

The memorial, he said, would not only honour veterans of wars past and ongoing but urge against fruitless wars not yet begun.

“All who gaze on this monument will declare in no un-certain voice – ‘Never again, never again’,” he said, the Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time.

Almost 85 years later, that message continues to guide the work of the memorial’s current director, Matt Anderson.

“You need to acknowledge the horrendous nature of war and what we ask our men and women to do,” Mr Anderson said.

“It’s so that when people leave the memorial at the end of a visit, they too will say, ‘never again’.”

Mr Anderson is overseeing the most significant redevelopment in the memorial’s history, set to be completed after eight years in 2028.

The $580 million project, announced by then-prime minister Scott Morrison in 2018, was controversial from its outset.

In 2024, the auditor-general found ministerial oversight was deliberately avoided and conflicts of interest were improperly managed.

Other critics have raised concerns that such a large redevelopment would endanger the museum’s heritage value.

But incorporating the stories of a new generation of veterans can be done with sensitivity and a respect for the existing site, Mr Anderson said.

“Even at the time of opening, there was acknowledgement that it needed to expand beyond the First World War Memorial,” he said.

“As we continue to collect, as we continue to tell stories through objects, we need to continue to expand.”

Central to the redevelopment, which will add more than 7000 square metres of new exhibition space, will be conflicts fought in recent decades.

The new exhibitions tell the stories of Australian veterans who fought in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria as well as peacekeeping operations.

“My view is memorials are as much for the living as they are for those who have passed,” Mr Anderson said.

“To have their service honoured while they’re living is arguably more important because they get that recognition they so richly deserve.”

A Chinook helicopter damaged in Afghanistan, a Hornet fighter jet and a landmine-struck Land Rover are among the new acquisitions on display.

A monument, memorial and archive to Australia’s military past, Mr Anderson said the site sits on a “fault line” in the national conversation.

A recent flare-up concerned a display dedicated to Ben Roberts-Smith, a decorated veteran charged with five counts of the war crime of murder.

A plaque beside his displayed uniform was changed to reflect the charges and case history.

Mr Anderson did not go into specifics as the case is before the courts but said his approach to matters of controversy was simple.

“Whatever the truth is, I will tell it. That’s my north star,” he said, acknowledging the confines of gallery space require a degree of balancing.

The work is part of an evolving story, one of both historic and personal significance for Mr Anderson.

“Other than being a husband and a dad, this is the most important thing I’ll ever do,” he said.

“To tell the stories of those 100,000 veterans whose stories haven’t been told before – that’s what gets me out of bed every morning.”