The Australian Light Horse Sculpture Parade is dedicated to the heroic troops who served in the Australian Light Horse, and their horses that could never return. It has a central mast and four sets of red poles, representing the Australian Light Horse on parade. The 55-metre-high mast with its reflective crown, located at the centre of the Light Horse Interchange, provides a focus to the sculpture. The lit mast and crown symbolise a torch in the dark.
The red colour of the poles, also referred to as markers, represents the Flanders poppy, and poppies that bloomed throughout Palestine. It is also symbolic of the blood of the supreme sacrifice made by servicemen who died during the war. The abstract plumage attached to each pole, represents the emu plumes attached to the light horsemen's slouch hats. The white band below the plumage is a reference to the departing soldiers' innocence of war.
Australian quarantine regulations prevented the return of any horse that had survived the battles. The old and sick horses were shot, while the remainder were handed over to British units. As a reminder of every light horseman's loss in leaving his horse behind, there is no physical representation of horses in the sculpture.
The sculpture was designed by architectural firm Conybeare Morrison, in consultation with representatives from the RSL.
Note: the above information was compiled by Ian R Stehbens, from the Roads and Traffic Authority website.
Background
During the First World War, the Australian Light Horse soldiers were based at a major training camp in Western Sydney, then called Wallgrove. It was located beside this interchange, which links the M4 Motorway with the Westlink M7. During the war, light horsemen patrolled the main water supply pipeline, which runs through the area. It is because of this long association it was decided the interchange at Eastern Creek should be called the Light Horse Interchange.
The Australian Light Horse were mounted regiments from NSW and other states that fought at Gallipoli and in the famous charge of Beersheba. They came to prominence during the First World War. This so called Great War, as much as any single event in Australian history, helped forge the Australian identity. But it came at a terrible cost. For Australia, as for other nations, the Great War remains the most costly conflict ever in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than 5 million, 300,000 men enlisted, of which more than 60,000 were killed and 156,000 were wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.
Following the outbreak of war in 1914, men from Western Sydney, as well as from other rural areas of NSW, especially the north coast, joined the Light Horse. At that time, Western Sydney was considered rural, if not quite 'the bush'. During the war, the Australian Light Horse regiments fought as infantry at Gallipoli in 1915, taking part in battles at Lone Pine and the Nek. Later, one regiment was sent to France, with the remaining 14 regiments taking part in battles in the Middle East, the most famous of which was the charge of Beersheba. This charge was one of the last mounted charges in history, and the last successful mounted charge in military history.
At 4.30pm on 31 October 1917, the 4th and the 12th Light Horse Regiments charged into the Turkish trenches, machine gun and artillery positions outside Beersheba. Without swords, as they were not issued to the Light Horse, the light horsemen drew their long bayonets to flash in the setting sun as swords. Beersheba fell to the Australian Light Horse. They eventually entered Jerusalem and were the first Allied troops to enter Damascus, shortly before the Armistice