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Lone PinePrint Page Print this page

21-November-2016
21-November-2016

Photographs supplied by Chris McLaughlin

The pine tree was planted as a continual memorial to the valour and supreme sacrifice of servicemen and women in various conflicts in which Australia has been involved.  

Location

Address:Commercial Street, Walla Walla, 2659
State:NSW
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -35.766483
Long: 146.901027
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Tree
Monument Theme:Conflict
Sub-Theme:Multiple

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Wednesday 25th April, 2001
Front Inscription

                LONE PINE
              [Photograph}

This tree is a descendent of the solitary tree which stood on the site of, and gave its name to, the now infamous "Battle of Lone Pine" at Gallipoli. This battle took place between 6 - 10th August 1915 on a ridge not much bigger than two tennis courts.  Casualties were estimated at 2,227 Australians and between 5000 - 6000 Turks killed or wounded.  Most of the intense hand to hand fighting took place in captured Turkish trenches in extremely cramped conditions.  It was not uncommon for hand grenades to pass back and forth up to three times before finally exploding.  Seven diggers were awarded the Victoria Cross for their valour during the fighting at the Battle of Lone Pine.

Although the original lone pine tree was obliterated in the heat of battle, two diggers retrieved seed from the battle site which they gave to their families.  During the 1920s a tree from this seed was transported from Australia and planted in the Lone Pine Cemetery at Gallipoli

This tree here in Walla Walla is descended from a cone sent home by Lance Corporal Benjamin Smith of the 3rd Battalion. His mother kept the cone for thirteen years before planting the seeds in 1928. Two seedlings survived, one of which was planted by the Duke of Gloucester at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in 1934.  This tree is now over 20 metres high and our tree comes from its seed.

The species to which the "lone pine" belongs is commonly called the Turkish or Gallipoli Pine.  Botanically it is sometimes regarded as a sub-species of Pinus halepensis (Aleppo Pine) but it usually classified as a distinct species, Pinus brutia.

This "lone pine" was planted on ANZAC Day 2001 as a continuing memorial and a reminder of the extraordinary valour and supreme sacrifice made by our service men and women past and present, that we may continue to live in freedom.

Planted by Mr John Jacob, Greater Hume Shire Citizen of the Year 2011, assisted by Ms Yvonne Simms who has contributed so much to the beauty of these gardens.


 

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