A $126,000 landscaping and lighting upgrade of Marine Pde by the Queenstown Lakes District Council, in consultation with the Queenstown Returned and Services Association, was virtually complete, just over one year since works began.
However, Queenstown RSA president David Geddes said yesterday eight new granite-type plaques, to commemorate each theatre of war New Zealand fought in, could not be attached until the memorial's walls were repaired.
The state of the memorial meant this year's Anzac Day parade could not be held at the memorial and would have to take place in the Queenstown Memorial Hall.
"The memorial is in quite poor condition and ideally we'd like it back to its original condition," Mr Geddes said.
"The whole thing needs a revamp and we think it's needed because it is an important memorial in a brilliant location.
"The first part is to stabilise the walls, ideally with the same finish as there is at the minute to blend with the gates. We would like to redo the rest of the surface of the walls and the gates. It needs to stand out as it is, not as a gate for the gardens."
The RSA had ordered a new flagpole and wanted more interpretation panels added, along with more "uplighting". Trees sourced from the countries where New Zealand service people served once formed an avenue on Marine Parade and the RSA wanted new seeds or saplings planted to replace the trees which were removed for safety reasons about 10 years ago.
Mr Geddes said RSA members were disappointed, but not frustrated, at the slow progress of the Marine Pde upgrade, or the lack of memorial repairs, realising the council had other priorities in a difficult economic climate.
Council community services general manager Paul Wilson said the cracks had been evident for as long as the eight years he had worked for the council. Flexible filler had been applied to the cracks, but it was not a long-term solution.
The council was seeking technical expertise to repair the walls correctly, but did not want to do "a hatchet job and make it worse than it is now," Mr Wilson said.
"It's generally sound, apart from localised cracks where the foundations have settled on pea gravel. It's not going to fall over."
