Expensive repairs of Warrnambool's WWI cannon 'on hold'

Two howitzers were removed from Cannon Hill for repairs in June 2020, but only one was returned in March last year after it was made safe.

The second one is in storage at a Warrnambool City Council depot to protect it from the weather

"The repairs to make the cannon safe for public display are more significant than those required for the first cannon," the council said.

"At this stage the repairs are on hold."

The safety repair works were carried out in lieu of full restoration which would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The German field guns were brought to Warrnambool in 1921 for display, and were dedicated on Anzac Day that year.

They were part of a huge amount of enemy equipment captured by Australian forces in 1918 and were chosen because of their links to the Warrnambool soldiers who fought on the Western Front.

RSL president Mike Bellamy said they would love to see the cannon back and repaired.

"It's a memorial precinct," he said.

"It's actually called Cannon Hill so it should have cannons on it when you think about it."

The memorial precinct is home to the city's major war memorials including tributes to WWI and WWII veterans, the Portuguese memorial, Vietnam veteran's memorial and another to Aboriginal servicemen.

Mr Bellamy said there was talk about putting other memorials along that area in honour of those who had served.

The precinct is also home to another little-known memorial.

Duncan Stalker, who volunteers at the RSL, said the memorial to General Charles George Gordon who was killed in Sudan in 1885 was the only one he was aware of in the region.

A recent TV screening of the 1966 movie Khartoum starring Charlton Heston reminded him of the memorial's existence at Cannon Hill.

Mr Stalker said he suspected there were ex-British servicemen who lived in the area that had decided to pay tribute to the hero.

"I would say people who served under Gordon lived in the area and that's why it was done," he said.

"With the film having been on recently, very few people would know it did exist here."

Mr Stalker said British prime minister William Gladstone was opposed to sending any army up the Nile and he was finally forced to.

Lord Kitchener led the army but reached Khartoum two days after the massacre in which Gordon was killed.

There had been strict instructions that Gordon - who had served as the governor-general to Sudan and worked to end the slave trade - wasn't to be touched.

"But they killed him and chopped his head off," Mr Stalker said.

The entire garrison of Egyptian soldiers were also killed along with thousands of Sudanese civilians.

Mr Stalker said the RSL memorial committee had plans to get the Cannon Hill area declared a memorial precinct. He said they wanted to get a brochure printed which told the story of the seven memorials in the area.

They also want talking posts installed at each of the memorials with QR codes so when people click on it it tells the story of the memorial. "It's a proposal," he said.

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