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Lone PinePrint Page Print this page

14-October-2013
14-October-2013

Photographs supplied by Graeme Saunders / Roger Johnson

 The Pine tree commemorates those who served in the various conflicts in which Australia has been involved.

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 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.

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:Wattle Avenue & Burwood Highway, ANZAC Park , Belgrave, 3160
State:VIC
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -37.907704
Long: 145.34959
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

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

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Sunday 21st May, 2000
Front Inscription

Plaque on cross :

ANZAC

Whereby our dead shall sleep In honour unbetrayed,
And we in faith and honour keep that peace for which they paid.
Kipling

Plaque on plinth :

Aleppo Pine

Descendent of the original Lone Pine of Gallipoli

Presented by the members of Upwey Belgrave R&SL Sub-branch 21st May 2000

Plaque on plinth :

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours...
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our osom
and are in peace.
Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATURK
Commander of The Turkish Forces at Gallipoli
First President of The Republic of Turkey

Donated by the Turkish Youth Association

 

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