The Kangaroo Ground Tower of Remembrance stands in the Eltham War Memorial Park, Yarra Glen Road, and honours those who died in World Wars 1 and 11, also in the conflicts in Korea, Borneo, Malaya and Vietnam.

The 12 metre high memorial soars 237 metres above sea level on Garden Hill, one of the highest locations in the Yarra Valley.  There are 53 steps and four long ladders leading up to the lookout atop the Tower of Remembrance.  A 360° panorama view covers Diamond Valley, Melbourne city and surrounds, the Kinglake escarpment, the mountains beyond Healesville, the Dandenong Ranges, Port Phillip Bay, the You Yangs and Mt Macedon.  Mr Andrew Ross, then headmaster of the Kangaroo Grounds School is said to have recorded in his diary ‘that having climbed the hill in 1852, and equipped with a powerful telescope observed the arrival in Port Philip of the steam-powered Great Britain direct from England.’

The area was originally known as Garden Hill, a name derived from a patch of ground cultivated by two shepherds, Brown and Draper before the influx of Scottish settlers in 1849.  The site upon which the tower stands was once local picnic grounds and a place at which the community gathered in celebration. 

Following World War One, local residents purchased two acres of land at Garden Hill, and at its highest point, built a cairn on which they mounted a flagpole.  

At a social gathering at the home of Cr Basil Yaldwin Hall, son of the Director of the National Gallery, it was suggested a tower be built in the style of the old English and Scottish watchtowers.  This would reflect the strong Scottish influence of Kangaroo Ground's first European settlers from the 1840s.

In 1920 a public committee was formed to establish a Memorial to which the public gave most generously.  Architects Arthur Stephenson and Percy Meldrum designed the tower without charge, from a sketch by the artist Harold Herbert.  The Builder was George Rousell of Mordialloc and he used stone donated by Professor William and Dr Ethel Osborne from their nearby property Kangaroo Hall.  The tower was reinforced with concrete and faced with sandstone rubble and concrete quoins and dressings.

The 1914-1918 Honour Plaque was unveiled on Armistice Day, November 11, 1926, by His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Stonehaven.  There are over 100 residents from the Shire of Eltham present.  There are 7 Windmill Palms, some as old as sixty years, planted around the perimeter of the memorial representing the six Australian states and one to represent the territories. 

From 1948 the tower also became a fire-spotters lookout although a cabin for their protection was not built until 1974.  The approach of the horrific bushfires of 2009 was observed from the tower and in November/December of that year a fire watch hut was installed

In 2001 the Governor of Victoria, John Landy dedicated further names of those who died in conflicts of Korea, Borneo, Malaya and Vietnam.

There are lists of names of those who are known to have enlisted in the Great War from the then Shire of Eltham.  The names have been sourced from a variety of sources and the Shire of Nillumbik asks that if you have any corrections to make contact 9433 3111

Source: