Afghanistan monuments arrive home

When the body of Private Robert Poate was brought home from Afghanistan, his mother felt his soul was left behind.

So Janny Poate travelled to Tarin Kowt in 2013 with the families of other fallen soldiers to bring his spirit back to Australia.

On Thursday, the final piece of her boy arrived at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

A marble monument, the centrepiece of Private Poate's farewell ceremony in Afghanistan, will stand alongside another from Camp Russell in the memorial's gardens.

Choking back tears, Ms Poate said she'll visit the memorial often to reflect on her boy - who was killed by enemy fire in 2012, aged 23.

"He's come back even more now," she said.

The families and those who served in Afghanistan now have a place in Australia to remember the 41 of their colleagues killed in the decade-long conflict.

Major General Gus McLachlan, who served as a brigade commander in Afghanistan, said monuments were invaluable to those who "stood in the dust at the foot of these memorials on a number of sad occasions".

Whether people were travelling well and able to celebrate their service or whether people were carrying physical and mental injuries there was now a place they could come and quietly reflect, he said.

The monuments supplement the war memorial's Afghanistan exhibition, which houses numerous war artefacts and pictures.

They would be preserved and kept here forever, Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson said.

"I want every Australian to know how much we value them and the lives, service and sacrifice of the men and women who gave so much of themselves."