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Aleppo PinePrint Page Print this page

16-March-2021
16-March-2021

Photographs supplied by Stephen Warren

The Aleppo pine commemorates those who served in 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).

The Shrine of Remembrance's 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.

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.

 

Location

Address:Anderson Walk, Smithfield, 5114
State:SA
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -34.682817
Long: 138.690086
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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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

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Friday 22nd April, 2016
Front Inscription

Aleppo Pine

An Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis) is propagated from seeds collected from the Lone Pine tree planted in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra by HRH Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester on 24 October 1934.

The original sapling was donated to the Memorial by the mother of an Australian soldier killed during the attack on Lone Pine, Gallipoli, in August 1915.  

Another of her sons had visited the site shortly after the battle and retrieved a pine cone from one of the logs used by the Turks as overhead cover for their trenches.

This Aleppo Pine was officially planted 22 April 2016 by Mayor Glenn Docherty

 

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