The memorial is an L-shaped brick wall, framing a small garden area, accompanied by a flagpole. Four memorial plaques are affixed to the wall, inscribed with dedications to those who served in conflicts in which Australia has been involved.
The wall is located on the grounds of Dareton Public School in Dareton, NSW. Access to the memorial is restricted as it is inside a school.
Elsewhere in the town is the Tapio Park Monument, which used to be located at the school. Formerly the town's war memorial, it is now a local history memorial. It is a tapered pillar, positioned on a square base; however, was historically referred to as a cairn.
History of Dareton and Coomealla
In 1933, an Anzac Memorial cairn was erected in the grounds of the Dareton Public School and regular Anzac Days services began.
The Coomealla RSL sub-Branch was formed immediately after the Second World War, and with the development of the soldier settlement extension of the Coomealla Irrigation Area in the early 1950s, providing farms for over 100 returned soldiers, the Anzac Day march and service became and remained an important part of the community calendar until the late 1990s. The ageing and dwindling numbers of local war veterans saw the takeover of the local sub-Branch by the Wentworth RSL sub-Branch, and the Anzac Day services moved to Wentworth. No services have been held in Dareton since 1999.
The cairn remained in place until 2009, when it was removed to make way for a new library for the Dareton Public School, funded by the Federal Government’s 'Building the Education Revolution' campaign. The plaques had previously been removed and fixed to the school's memorial wall, about 20 years earlier.
The cairn lay on the edge of the school grounds for a number of years, before being relocated to Tapio Park under the initiative of the Dareton, Coomealla and Namatjira Community Action Group, locally referred to as the CAT Team. It no longer serves as a war memorial, and a plaque attached to the base states "[t]his monument built in 1933 by the first settlers now acknowledges the history (story) of the peoples of Dareton/Coomealla, 2015."
Following the Dareton/Coomealla 90th celebrations held over the long weekend in June 2015, and being in the middle of the Centenary of Anzac 2014-2018 commemoration period, a move was made to establish a permanent memorial with an honour roll to commemorate the war service of the men and women of our community, and again to have Anzac Day services in Dareton.