A century after diggers from Darwin enlisted to fight in the First World War, the city has unveiled its first Anzac commemorative sites.
The Anzac centenary memorial garden was unveiled in the city's Bicentennial Park along Darwin's Esplanade on Wednesday.
The small memorial features a sundial signifying timelessness, which was designed by NT Australian Army cadets.
It marks the beginning of the pathway leading towards Darwin's cenotaph, which has also been officially renamed the Anzac Centenary Walk.
"I hope what you see does you proud like it does me," Ivan Walsh, Vice-President of the NT branch of the National Servicemen's Association, told other assembled veterans.
"There are no other place names in Darwin with Anzac in their name ... Anzac Centenary Walk is a very first for Darwin even though we had diggers join up from here."
He said it was "highly, highly important" for Darwin to mark the Anzac experience as it does for the 1942 bombing of Darwin by the Japanese.
"Anzac is special, it is the commemoration thing we do even though we've been in many many other wars around the world over many years," he told AAP.
"It was Anzac where Australia as a nation and as an army came of age, along with New Zealand, of course."
Mr Walsh spent more than four years working to make the site a reality.
The garden was funded with a funding pool of $4.5 million from the NT government for grassroots commemorative projects as part of the Anzac centenary.
"On Saturday thousands of Territorians will gather to pause and reflect on the enormous service and contribution and sacrifice that men and women in our armed forces have made over the last one hundred years," parliamentary secretary Lia Finocchiaro said.
Share
