There are more than 600 known Avenues of Honour across our country, and details of each is recorded on a central website. Giant figs planted in 1915 in South Australia’s Normanville recognise volunteers to the Great War, cypress trees in Lara Victoria commemorate servicemen of WW2, and flame trees in far-north Queensland remember those lost in Afghanistan.
“These trees are living reminders of those who have served, sacrificed and suffered,” says Tim Johnson, Director of TREENET, the non-profit behind the Avenues of Honour project.
“And to keep them alive, we’re calling on all Australians to contribute their local knowledge.”
“We want to hear from anyone who can improve our histories and stories of these memorial trees,” Tim says. “When were they planted? What stories of local servicepeople should be remembered with the trees? Are our existing location details and photos of each site as accurate as possible?”
Known memorial trees from across Australia are listed at avenuesofhonour.org.
Contributions to improve and expand on the database are welcome via the website or to [email protected]
“There are still many living memorials yet to be recorded,” Tim says. “Trees that were planted by mothers and wives, children and returned servicepeople to commemorate their loved ones. We want to see them all remembered, respected and revisited — lest we forget.”
Avenues of Honour is an initiative of TREENET, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving Australia’s urban forest. For more information contact Tim Johnson: [email protected] or 0448 599 955. Imagery can be downloaded here.
