sentences:  Between the 1950s and 1990s surviving prisoners of war from the Ballarat region met regularly and various plans for the establishment of a focal point for commemoration were periodically discussed.Throughout that time the Australian Federal Government had given periodic undertakings that a permanent monument would be eventually built in Canberra (the national capital).By the early 1980s, the Ballarat City Council granted a parcel of land adjacent to the city gardens to allow local veterans a place to establish a permanent focal point for the Ballarat POWs.