Lost Avenues of Honour

The building of war memorials provides a commemorative symbol of the human cost of war.  War memorials are also substitute graves for fallen soldiers in their far-off final resting places overseas.  Memorials include honour boards, monuments, buildings, avenues of honour and other structures such as the Great Ocean Road.

Monuments at Torquay

In 1950, the Torquay sub-branch of the Returned Servicemen’s League constructed a memorial stone cairn (of local stone) at Point Danger to commemorate the soldiers who fought and died in the First and Second World Wars.  Additional plaques were added to the cairn to commemorate other conflicts, including the Korean, Malaysian and Vietnam Wars, as well as other plaques relating to regiments and people.  An ANZAC remembrance wall was later erected. 

Avenues of Honour

Within the Shire several Avenues of Honour were planted.  

The only surviving avenue is at Modewarre.  It was initially planted as an avenue of elms in 1918 prior to the cessation of the First World War, and was replaced with the existing 32 cypress trees in the c.1940s, except for one surviving elm (tree number 33, dedicated to Albert Jacka who was awarded Australia’s first Victoria Cross at Gallipoli).

The other avenues of honour in the Surf Coast Shire have subsequently been lost.  

At Torquay in May 1918 the Torquay Progress Association [TIA] decided to plant an avenue of trees along the main road in honour of their soldiers serving in the First World War and those who had made the supreme sacrifice. 

Later in August it was reported the TIA had undertaken planting the avenue of trees and trees were planted by a relative or friend of each respective soldier.  The first tree planted was in honour of Private C. Altman, the first, soldier from Torquay to make the supreme sacrifice. 

Later in November 1918 at the TIA annual general meeting a report was given that in Soldiers Park where about 40 Norfolk Island pines have been planted, name plates were to be affixed at a late date.  The location of these trees is now unknown.

On the Avenues of Honour website, a very short reference is made to the planting of a double row of flowering gum trees in Torquay in memory of Second World War soldiers.  Again, the location of these trees is now unknown.

At Lorne, an avenue of red gum trees was planted in the former library paddock after the First World War.  They appear to have been removed in the 1950s when the paddock was transformed into the Stribling Recreation Reserve.

At Anglesea, 72 flowering gum trees were planted in 1920 at the instigation of Mrs Emma Mawson (after her daughter’s fiancée had been killed in action) to commemorate permanent residents and holidaymakers to the district who did not return from the First World War.  

The Avenue was planted along the main road from the Hotel to the old bridge (now Murch Crescent) and then continued along Noble Street, almost as far as the corner of Murray Street.  Many years later the trees were removed by an Electricity Company because they were then under electricity lines.  One surviving tree was removed by the Barrabool Shire Council after lobbying by a local environmental group who claimed the tree was not indigenous to the area.  The cultural significance of the tree was not considered at the time.

At Winchelsea, an avenue of honour lined Bennett Street, on the approach to the Eastern Reserve.  Planted in c.1922 the trees did not survive.

References

Avenue of Honour- Torquay Avenue of Honour.  Available from https://avenuesofhonour.org/places/victoria/torquay/torquay-avenue-of-honour/
Baulch, C. (2019). Together they served 1914-1918. Men & Women who enlisted from the Surf Coast Shire. Torquay Museum Without Walls: Torquay.  pp 80
Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1929) Tue 28 May 1918 Page 5
Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1929), Friday 9 August 1918 Page 5
Kellaway, C. (1998). Environmental History. Surf Coast Shire Heritage Study Stage 2B. [Revised & updated 2009 by Dr David Rowe]
Monument Australia. Point Danger War Memorial. Available from https://www.monumentaustralia.org.au/display/33752-point-danger-war-memorial