Albany Anzac site on track for centenary Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited Mt Clarence in Albany in 2011. The PM is pictured with Albany Mayor Milton Evans, Geoff Hand (Albany Anzac Alliance) and O'Connor MP Tony Crook. Picture: Matts Ken Source: PerthNow WORK to prepare the historic city of Albany for next year's Anzac centenary commemorations will be complete on time, the state government says. As well as being the site where Europeans first set foot on WA land, it's also where thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops departed for Egypt and then Gallipoli in Turkey in 1914. Major improvements to the Anzac memorial at Mount Clarence are underway, allowing an extra 800 people to be accommodated, up from the currently maximum capacity of 2500 people. Work will commence on the next stage of the upgrade immediately after Anzac Day commemorations this year. Construction of the Anzac Interpretive Centre next to Mount Adelaide's Submariners Memorial Lookout is expected to start in mid-November this year, with completion slated for the end of July 2014. It needs to be finished by November 1 next year, when there will be a re-enactment of the departure of ships from King George Sound. The event will mark 100 years since the first Anzac troops left Albany, bound for war, many of whom never returned. There's been some controversy surrounding the Anzac Interpretive Centre over delays - amid worries among some Returned Services League members that construction wouldn't be complete in time - and the choice of site. Another proposed site on the side of Mount Adelaide would have involved too much land clearing, Premier Colin Barnett has said previously, while next to the Submariners Memorial Lookout was better because it overlooked Ataturk Channel. "I am absolutely confident that it will be completed well and truly in time for November 1 next year," the state's first veterans minister Joe Francis said. Mr Francis said negotiations were underway regarding the re-enactment, which is expected to involve about 30 ships.