Shrine of Remembrance

Image: Earl Carter, courtesy Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne

Our history with the Eternal Flame at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance

Within our network at Multinet are some important Melbourne icons that we are honoured to provide in-kind support. One such icon is the Eternal Flame at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.

The Eternal Flame was part of Ernest Milston’s 1949 competition winning design for the Shrine’s Second World War Memorial Forecourt, and it was inspired by a similar feature at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Belgium. After successful testing before the Shrine Trustees on 15 August 1952, the flame was formally lit by Queen Elizabeth in February 1954 at the official opening ceremony of the Second World War Memorial Forecourt. Because of the Flame’s extremely exposed location a special burner design was developed with the assistance of Don Bell from the Gas and Fuel Corporation (G&FC).

The monument containing The Eternal Flame is comprised of a series of circular elements. Fuelled by natural gas, the flame is generated from a small cone shaped copper brazier mounted inside a larger, thin, and shallow bronze bowl.

From the initial engineering through to the ongoing maintenance and gas supply, our organisation has been enormously proud to support the Eternal Flame at the Shrine for over nearly 70 years. As part of our support, we supply gas to the Shrine and undertake regular maintenance works.

To ensure the Eternal Flame is running smoothly every year for ANZAC Day (25th April) and Remembrance Day (11th November) approximately 2 weeks before the Flame is cleaned and serviced. And because the Shrine is a popular tourist attraction our planned maintenance on The Eternal Flame happens just before sunrise when it is quiet and there are less people around.

In November 2019, the original Eternal Flame Burner head was replaced with a new burner head manufactured based on the original burner head drawings. We collaborated with Dant Industries and RMIT University to ensure this process ran smoothly and the new burner head met safety regulations and worked perfectly.

Image description: (from L-R) 1. Original wooden prototype, 2. Original burner that was replaced in 2019 (after 65 years), 3 the new brass burner that is currently installed in the Eternal Flame. Interesting fact: the top of the burner has been designed to replicate a poppy flower.

Long before the Eternal Flame was first lit, gas as an energy source had a long history in Melbourne, first appearing around the late 1850’s. By the 1880’s gas networks, owned by the Metropolitan Gas Company, were being rolled out. In 1951 Metropolitan Gas was taken over by the government-owned Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria (G&FC). In 1997 the government privatised G&FC dividing it into multiple companies. One of the gas distributor companies formed in 1997 was Multinet.

While our gas distribution network has been supplying energy to households for about 150 years, those pipes from 150 years ago have long {long!} gone! We completely upgrade our network of pipes approximately every 50 years and are currently 87% through this process of renewal in Victoria getting us ready for renewable gas.

As we approach the 70th anniversary of the Eternal Flame at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance we are very honoured to play an ongoing part in this incredibly special piece of Melbourne history.