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Lone PinePrint Page 
The Pine tree was planted in memory of those who served in World War One and is a tribute to all who served. Pines which are planted as a memorial to the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought in Gallipoli are also known as "Lone Pines" or "Gallipoli Pines", referencing the original tree.
The original pine tree was planted at the site on the 22nd April 2007 and was replaced in October 2016.
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: | Point Road & Manning Street, Lone Pine Memorial Park, Tuncurry, 2428 |
|---|---|
| State: | NSW |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -32.179507 Long: 152.500376 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Tree |
|---|---|
| Monument Theme: | Conflict |
| Sub-Theme: | WW1 |
| Actual Event Start Date: | 04-August-1914 |
| Actual Event End Date: | 28-June-1919 |
Dedication
| Approx. Monument Dedication Date: | October-2016 |
|---|
Plaque:
The original LONE PINE failed to flourish and
had to be removed.
The replacement is an original sapling from the
Australian War Memorial Nursery Canberra
relocated to this site in October 2016 by
Forster- Tuncurry RSL Sub-Branch
Plaque :
Vietnam Veterans Federation
Rotary International
The Battle of Lone Pine
Much may have been forgotten about those who won fame at Gallipoli but two locations are still well known. One is Anzac Cove, the beach where most of the Anzacs landed on 25 April 1915. The other is Lone Pine where between 8 and 9 August 1915 there took place one of the most hard fought actions in Australian military history - the battle of Lone Pine. Australian casualties at Lone Pine amounted to over 2,000 men while the Turks estimated their losses at 6,930. When it was all over the dead lay thickly all around the position and the war diary of the 2nd battalion AIF recorded that during the cleaning up process bodies were found in such a state of decomposition that men could only do the work by wearing gas masks. Charles Bean in his official history described Lone Pine as a battle of bombs and hand to hand fighting, the heaviest of its kind in which Australian troops ever took part. Something of the desperate nature of the struggle can be understood by the fact that seven Victoria Crosses were awarded to Australians for their courage at Lone Pine, five of them for actions in one day alone, 9 August 1915, an unprecedented event in Australian military history. Today six of those Victoria Crosses are on display in a Lone Pine exhibition in the Australian War Memorial Hall of Valour.
Plaque :
"The Lone Pine"
(Pinus halepensis)
PLANTED ON 22/04/07 IN MEMORY OF OUR "ANZACS"
AND AS A TRIBUTE TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED
On behalf of the GLVVA and RCFOW
