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Lone PinesPrint Page Print this page

13-August-2016
13-August-2016

Photographs supplied by Mary Beaven

Two pine trees commemorate those who fought at Gallipoli during World War One.

The Lone Pine was the name given to a solitary tree on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, which marked the site of the Battle of Lone Pine in 1915 during World War One and it was the sole survivor of a group of trees that had been cut down by Turkish soldiers who had used the timber and branches to cover their trenches.

The tree was obliterated during the battle; however, pine cones that had remained attached to the cut branches over the trenches were retrieved by two Australian soldiers and brought home to Australia. Private Thomas Keith McDowell, a soldier of the 23rd Battalion brought a pine cone from the battle site back to Australia, and many years later seeds from the cone were planted by his wife's aunt Emma Gray of Grassmere, near Warrnambool, Victoria and five seedlings emerged, with four surviving. These seedlings were planted in four different locations in Victoria: Wattle Park (May 8, 1933), the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne (June 11, 1933), the Soldiers Memorial Hall at The Sisters near Terang (June 18, 1933) and Warrnambool Botanic Gardens (January 23, 1934).

Another soldier, Lance Corporal Benjamin Smith from the 3rd Battalion, also retrieved a cone and sent it back to his mother (Mrs McMullen) in Australia, who had lost another son at the battle. Seeds from the cone were planted by Mrs McMullen in 1928, from which two seedlings were raised. One was presented to her home town of Inverell (New South Wales) and the other was forwarded to Canberra where it was planted by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester at the Australian War Memorial in October 1934.

The Shrine of Remembrance's lone pine was felled in August 2012 and the timber used as part of a remembrance project, after a disease known as Diplodia pinea or blue stains fungus as it commonly called killed it.

Melbourne Legacy and the Yarralumla Nursery in Canberra have grown seedlings sourced from the trees at the Shrine of Remembrance and the Australian War Memorial respectively, which they have presented to schools as well as ex-service and other organisations throughout Australia.

Location

Address:Semaphore & Fletcher Roads, Birkenhead Naval Reserve, Birkenhead, 5015
State:SA
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -34.839196
Long: 138.498508
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Trees
Monument Theme:Conflict
Sub-Theme:WW1

Dedication

Front Inscription

              City Of 
     Port Adelaide Enfield

      The Lone Pine

This plaque acknowledges the planting of 2 Lone Pines

The Lone Pine was a solitary tree on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey,
which marked the site of the Battle of Lone Pine in 1915.  
This battle involved some of the fiercest fighting in the Gallipoli
campaign and the last tree was destroyed in battle.

At the Lone Pine Cemetery on Gallipoli Pensinsula, a solitary pine was
planted in the 1920s to symbolise the Lone Pine.
Today, Lone Pines are often planted in Australia as a memorial to the
Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in Gallipoli.

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au