Soldiers Avenue explored

By Lachlan Ellis

A local historian and author has shared her findings on a “lost” Avenue of Honour in Barrys Reef, which was established over a century ago, after reading the story in the Moorabool News (Jan 10).

Margot Hitchcock will mark 50 years of membership at the Blackwood & District Historical Society this year, and says she’s eager to see the ‘Soldiers Avenue’ at Barrys Reef restored.

“I’ve written books on the history of Blackwood, so I’m passionate about the history of Barrys Reef. The late Allan Hall, who was President of the Historical Society, took me up to Barrys Reef one day and showed me where the Avenue of Honour trees were,” Ms Hitchcock told the Moorabool News.

“According to the research I did on the Barrys Reef elms, a teacher, Eleanor Taylor, planted them with the help of students and parents on Arbour Day in 1919. There was only two that survived. But the trees that are there now must have been planted some other time, because according to the research only two elm trees survived.”

Ms Hitchcock was sent a photo of the original trees planted in the Soldiers Avenue by a person related to the Goodge family, who lived in Barrys Reef at the time.

“The photo had all these trees that were planted, and had wooden surrounds around them protecting them. In the photo she sent me, not all the trees were there, but there were nearly 20 there. I don’t know when that photo was taken, but I think they were the original trees planted. It’s quite an old photo,” she said.

“They put plaques on them with soldiers’ names on them, and the timber from the plaques was obtained from the Sultan Mine, which was the biggest mine in Barrys Reef, where some of the men who went to war would’ve worked.”

Ms Hitchcock has written a book of more than 700 pages, which hasn’t yet been published, and has a chapter on the soldiers of Barrys Reef.

“I got on to the Canberra National Archives, and I think I’ve researched all of them except for six who I’ve been unable to find anything about. I’ve written a chapter in my book about it, and found some photos in the Canberra Archives too,” she said.

For more information on Ms Hitchcock’s historical work, visit the ‘Blackwood History and Pioneers, Victoria’ Facebook page.