An introduction

After World War 1, the 24th Battalion, continuing as a militia unit, established its training base at Wattle Park, close to its administrative headquarters at the Surrey Hills Drill Hall. In May 1929, the 24th Battalion, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Stanley Savige, carried out the Trooping of the Colour ceremony at Wattle Park. Special permission was obtained from His Majesty, King George V for the ceremony, believed to have been the first held in Australia. This impressive ceremony, with audiences of up to twenty thousand, was staged annually in early May, to commemorate the departure of the Battalion in 1915.

At the fifth annual ceremony on 7th May 1933, the first of four seedlings, propagated from seeds from the solitary Lone Pine at Gallipoli, was planted by the Mayor of Box Hill, Cr J.K. Archer and the Mayor of Camberwell, Cr J.H. Nettleton. The second seedling was planted six weeks later adjacent to Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance, also in honour of the 24th Battalion. These events were both organized by Lieutenant-Colonel Savige (also recognised as the founder of Legacy in 1923).

 

Clocktower Monument

The clock tower, built by the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board in 1948, was erected in tribute to a soldier of the 7th Battalion AIF who fell during the First World War. It had long been assumed that the tower commemorated a fallen soldier of the Second World War, however, research by local historian Edna Shaw, revealed that the funds had been provided by Mrs Zilpah Bennett, a generous local benefactor, who sought a lasting memorial to her son, 26-year-old Private Royden Louis Charles Bennett, who fell at Pozieres, in 1917.

 

Recent Events

On 7 May 1995, a ceremony was held in the patriotic area to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the departure of the 24th Battalion to Egypt and subsequently, Gallipoli. This service included the re-dedication of the Lone Pine, the consecration of the ashes of Sir Frank Selleck and the dedication of the clock tower.

An annual Anzac Commemoration Service was instituted by the Melbourne Tramways Band in April 2001 and continues under the auspices of the Wattle Park Heritage Group and Parks Victoria. At this service on 17 April 2011 a juvenile Turkish Red Pine (Pinus brutia) – progeny of the original Wattle Park tree, was planted by George Mackenzie OBE RFD. Two bronze plaques were unveiled on 27 April 2014 by The Hon. Ted Baillieu MLA, Chairman, Victoria Anzac Commemoration Council.

 

The Lone Pine Tree: Salient Points

When the British military reconnoitred the potential area for the Gallipoli landings (from the sea) the forward ridge of Plateau 400 was identified by a solitary scrubby pine tree, dubbed the ‘Lonesome Pine’. The sector was later referred to as Lone Pine. This ridge should not be confused with ‘Pine Ridge’, which was off to the flank of Plateau 400, and carried a number of native pine trees (Pinus brutia).

Detail from “The taking of Lone Pine”, 1921, oil-on-canvas, by Fred Leist.

 

Late in the day of the landings (on 25 April) Australian troops progressed over and beyond the Lone Pine ridge, but withdrew towards the beach when consolidating the ground taken. There was no mention of any trenches on the ridge at that time. Realising the strategic importance of the ridge, over subsequent months the Turks constructed a network of trenches at Lone Pine, which were covered with pine logs brought in from elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire.

The ANZAC forces eventually took the Lone Pine sector (at a frightful cost) during the August Offensive from 6 to 10 August 1915. Australian troops involved noted surprise at the extent of the fortified trench system. After clearing the trenches, a member of the 3rd Battalion (Lance Corp Benjamin Smith) collected a cone from one of the logs over the trenches. Two pines were eventually grown from the seeds of this cone; the first was planted in Inverell in NSW (Smith’s hometown) and the second at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. These trees are Pinus halipensis (Aleppo pines), which are not indigenous to the Gallipoli peninsula.

When troops of the 2nd Division arrived at Gallipoli in early September, the 23rd and 24th Battalions were immediately sent to relieve the troops at Lone Pine (a dreaded assignment), with the two Battalions cooperating in tandem to hold the trenches for the remainder of the campaign–despite repeated counter-attacks. A soldier of the 23rd Battalion, Private Thomas Keith McDowell, souvenired a cone from the remains of the actual ‘Lone Pine’, and carried it in his haversack until he was sent home due to ill health. He gave the cone to his wife’s aunt, Mrs Emma Gray of Grassmere (near Warrnambool), who twelve years later successfully raised four seedlings.

 

Emma Gray (at far right) and Keith McDowell (kneeling) plant one of their pines at The Sisters in 1933. (Image courtesy Jean Barrie Giblet)