Lost Avenue emerges

By Lachlan Ellis

You might have driven past it without even realising, but local groups hope to restore a “forgotten” Avenue of Honour in Barrys Reef – believed to be the final “lost” but restorable Avenue.
Led by the Ballan RSL, the committee plans to restore a 29-tree Avenue of Honour planted over 100-years ago in Barrys Reef, back in 1919.
The Avenue was originally planted by a local primary school that no longer exists, representing the 29 men from Barrys Reef who fought in World War I, with nine never returning home.
An initial $8,000 grant allowed the committee to pay an arborist to study the trees, with only a handful of the trees still standing in the area, which has become overgrown with weeds.
Ballan RSL President Pippa Morris said the committee wanted the area to become a “homage to the Blackwood and Barrys Reef community both pre- and post-World War I, and represent a long-lost community”.
“We’ve been negotiating with DELWP for four or five years to get the management of this. Originally, they weren’t aware that this was an Avenue of Honour…the RSL took it on as a project back in 2017, and we were able to get the licence early last year,” Ms Morris told the Moorabool News.
“This year we got a State Government Veterans Grant to do what we call Phase 1 of the project, that was to pull together a Community Reference Group with the Blackwood Historical Society, the Blackwood Landcare Group, and the Ballan Shire Historical Society, to put together a restoration plan for what we’ll then call Phase 2.”
Phase 2 will comprise the actual physical work to restore the Avenue, which the committee will apply for funding for in the next grants round in March 2023.
“The project itself will probably take at least three years, we need to break the work plan up into yearly lots, and seek individual grants for each year. It’s not just about the military history of this, it’s about the community that was here that isn’t here anymore,” Ms Morris said.
“This area was all about mining and sawmilling. The plan is to create a space here that represents the community, not just information about the 29 men who signed up. We want to turn it into a community space, and bring back the community that planted it in 1919, but also have it as a bridge to the current community that lives here.”
A project launch is planned for February next year at the Blackwood Hall, but an exact date hasn’t been set yet.
The committee is also planning a number of working bees to clear the weeds at the site.