The crowd was there to see the first soil collected for an ambitious artwork that will be a feature in the Hall of Service at the refurbished Anzac Memorial in Sydney’s Hyde Park.

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs David Elliott and NSW Centenary of Anzac Advisory Council chair Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie were in Bathurst to launch the Anzac Memorial Centenary Project Soil Collection.

An artwork developed by artist Fiona Hall, alongside Sydney architect Richard Johnson, will display soil collected from the 1699 NSW towns, suburbs and locations from where soldiers enlisted for the Great War.

A ring set into the floor will also list 100 sites of significance in the state’s military history.

Having watched an indigenous smoking ceremony at the beginning of Monday’s launch, Mr Elliott said the Aboriginal idea of sacred sites was appropriate when it came to the soil collection project.

“For all soldiers, this is a sacred site,” Mr Elliott said, referring to the Carillon. “This is a war memorial that reflects and commemorates the courage and character of people who died half a world away.”

The people of Bathurst could not go to those sites on the other side of the world to commemorate their dead, he said, so they commemorated them at the Carillon.

“We’ll be taking a bit of soil from this sacred site and putting it in a sacred site in Hyde Park,” he said.

Both Mr Elliott and Mr Gillespie emphasised the importance of learning the lessons of the past and of having the next generation carry the stories of previous soldiers through to the following generation.

NSW Surveyor General Narelle Underwood said a lot of work had gone into deciding the most appropriate place in each location for soil to be collected.

She said the project “reinforces the importance of place and place names in our society”.

The NSW Government is upgrading the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park to realise the vision of the memorial’s original architect, Bruce Dellit, including a water cascade through the park.

It will also have new education and exhibition spaces and storage for the memorial’s collection.

“Each sample of soil will be placed in the Hall of Service with the name of the town next to it for future generations to realise the enormity of our state’s sacrifice and that this service continues today,” Mr Elliott said.

The Anzac Memorial upgrade will be complete in 2018, as the Centenary of Anzac commemorations draw to a close.