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Canberra Today 25°/29° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

War Memorial’s mighty warrior lays down his arms

Major-General Steve Gower
AFTER a mighty 16 years at the helm of the Australian War Memorial, its director, Major General Steve (“just call me Steve”) Gower is stepping down on Friday.

Gower well remembers the day in March, 1996, when, after treating his wife, Heather, to her first trip in an Army helicopter, he changed careers, leaping overnight from the Army to the top job at the Memorial.

After 38 years in the Army, including periods of combat as an artillery forward observer during the Vietnam War in 1966 and 1967 and as chief of logistics for the Army, Navy and Air Force, it was time to move on. “I was keen to get into it,” he tells “CityNews”.

An Adelaide boy, whose mother used to make him go to art school every Saturday morning until cricket won out, he enrolled aged 17 at Duntroon, where he trained as a mechanical engineer, later taking out his masters at the University of Adelaide with a thesis on aerodynamics.

It is common knowledge that when Gower arrived at the War Memorial, there were problems.

Many years later,  during a Remembrance Day oration in 2011, Gower aired his views about his predecessors, historians, and even the formidable former council chairwoman Dame Beryl Beaurepaire, leading to a formal complaint to the Public Service Commissioner by former director, Brendon Kelson (not to be confused with former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson who  has been appointed  new director) and his deputy, Michael McKernan, that is still under investigation.

But now, mellow with hindsight, he prefers to tell “CityNews” about all the positive things, mainly how important it is for the institution to reach out to the Australian public.

“A tremendous identity is shaped by the War Memorial,” he says, “it’s about the men and women who have volunteered to protect the nation and their sacrifices in doing that.”

To Gower, there is little doubt that the Memorial is unique in its extraordinary collection of art, photographs, relics and written records, “all presented in an integrated in an integrated form – it’s wonderful”.

Among the prime achievements of his era, he counts the C E W Bean Building the ANZAC Hall extension and refurbishment of the Lancaster bomber “G for George”, the Terrace Restaurant, the ground’s development and landscaping as well as the range of permanent and temporary exhibitions.

Perhaps the proudest moment for Gower and his staff was their success in winning the Australian Tourism Awards’ Best Major Tourist Attraction from 2000 to 2003, and has also being inducted into the Tourism Awards Hall of Fame.

“We are all wonderfully proud of that,” he says, and while some people thought it was a bit undignified getting into the tourism game, it paid off because after that, many visitors came to the Memorial just because it was in the Hall of Fame.

On the same lines, it excites him that in 2005, 25,000 people turned up to the National Tattoo.

In complete contrast to his military image, Gower became adept in the world of museology, serving as chair of the Council of Australian Museum Directors and then in senior position with The International Council of Museums and, in 2003, staged an ICOM international conference on museum management here in Canberra.

“I like the chance to pick the brains of all the other countries’ museum managers,” he says, hastily adding that the standard of museum practice is first-rate in Australia.

Another of his proud boasts is his revitalisation of the Official War Art Scheme, vigorous during World Wars I and II, but sidelined until he renewed it by appointing artists such as Wendy Sharpe, Jon Cattapan and Rick Amor to depict peacekeeping operations in Timor Leste or cutting-edge video artist Shaun Gladwell visitingAfghanistan.

As well, he says, his era saw publishing not just by war historians but by curators, writing about the Memorial’s diorama, its works of art, its photographs, and its artillery collection. The current acting director, and Nola Anderson, has just produced a mighty book on the whole War Memorial collection which Gower looks forward to reading.

“It’s important to share the place with the people,” he says “there’s got to be vibrancy and it’s got to be relevant”.

To some of his civilian staff, “the Major General” seems at times to verge on glorifying battle, but this is not his own view.

“It’s sad that the last century has been so much punctuated by war, but people continue to step up to serve the nation,” he says.

He is particularly impressed by the latest batch of VCs fromAfghanistan – “fine people,” he says.

But it’s true that he lays great stress on honouring the past. It particularly touches him that the original Long Tan Cross, commemorating a fierce battle against a large Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army force, has come to the Memorial. Describing it as “a significant and meaningful relic,” he says he is delighted to finally see it on display.

Gower, known for his colourful  vituperative when he sees works of art of which he doesn’t approve, is, for a military man, remarkably interested in the arts, though he is quick to argue that mechanical engineering involves a lot of creativity.

Not only were there those early mother-enforced art classes inAdelaide, but when he served with the Army in England and the Continent, he visited all the galleries. His daughter Jane is an accomplished international bassoonist, reflecting a family interest in music, too.

Gower pays tribute to his wife Heather, who is now very ill, describing her as “a wonderful support in my army years and a wonderful unofficial hostess for the War Memorial”. As he steps down to look after her, he says: “It is not a burden to become a full-time carer, it’s a great privilege”.

As for leaving the job, “it’s been very stimulating, but as my mother always said, ‘nothing lasts’.”

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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