Sixty-eight trees to remember sixty-eight soldiers

AN annual spring tree renewal effort by the City is beginning this week along the Avenue of Honour.

Arch of Victory – Avenue of Honour Committee president, Garry Snowden said severe weather, decay, old age, and vehicle damage mean many trees are identified by arborists as needing replacement.

“Sixty-eight trees are scheduled for replanting, and among those are trees that act as memorials to 18 men who lost their lives on the First World War battlefields,” he said.

“Interestingly, nine of those men have no known grave, so their tree and plaque in our Avenue are perhaps the nearest thing they have to a personalised or named headstone.

“Our national memorials at places like Villers-Bretonneux and VC Corner in France, and Lone Pine at Gallipoli, plus the imposing Menin Gate in Belgium, carry the names of thousands of men who still lie under foreign battlefields, but our Avenue of Honour provides a personal memorial to each of our men.”

Frederick Rawlings’ tree is expected to be planted later in the month once his descendants can travel to Ballarat from Melbourne. He died during the “ill-fated” July charge at Fromelles, 1916.

“His last resting place remained a mystery for over 90 years until a search, prompted by amateur researchers, led to the discovery of burial pits on the edge of Pheasant Wood near Fromelles,” Mr Snowden said.

“A subsequent DNA matching program led to the identification and reburial of more than 200 Australians killed at Fromelles. One of those men was Frederick Rawlings who now lies under his named headstone in the Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery.”

Other men with a known grave whose trees will be replanted are Victor Jolly and Samuel Martin, killed in France, Patrick Maher, who died in England, Harold Dixon, who never returned from Egypt, and Lewis Mudie MM, who died in Belgium.

Joseph Quinlan was killed in France, and Donald Chisolm and Thomas Lakeland both died in Gallipoli.

Those with no known graves receiving new trees are Frank Stephens, killed in Belgium, Owen Eason, Frederick Harris, Horace Lucas, Victor Lepp, Everett Rickard and Samuel Brew who died in France, Richard Kincade, killed in Belgium and Albert Leslie King whose death was in Palestine.

Ninety commemorative plaques will be re-installed in the Avenue following the conclusion of replanting.