Light horse interchange

Colin Polwarth was lead urban design and an Associate at Conybeare Morrison and designed this memorial in honour of the famous Australian mounted military units who had a training camp at Wallgrove Road as part of the Westlink M7 project.

https://www.westlinkm7.com.au/about/features-of-the-m7/memorial-features

The sculpture has a central mast and four sets of radiating markers, which stretch approximately 1km out from the centre, representing the Australian Light Horse on parade. The fifty five meter mast with a reflective crown is located at the centre of the Light Horse Interchange provides a focus to the sculpture. The lit mast and crown symbolise a torch in the dark.

Red, the colour of the Flanders poppy and poppies that bloomed throughout Palestine, are symbolic of the blood of supreme sacrifice and is the colour chosen for the sculptural group.

The abstract plumage attached to each marker represents the emu plumes attached to the Light Horsemen’s slouch hats. The white band is a reference to the departing soldiers’ innocence of war.

Australian quarantine regulations prevented the return of any horse that had survived the battles. As a reminder of every Light Horseman’s loss in leaving his horse behind, there is no physical representation of the horse in the sculpture.

The sculpture was designed in consultation with RTA (now TfNSW RMS) Leighton Abigroup Joint Venture, Westlink M7, the Returned and Services League of Australia (NSW Branch), its former President Rusty Priest AM, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hall DSM and Colonel John Haynes OAM, President of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps Association of NSW.

Steel pipes, paint, wire, reflective tape and concrete