Fotheringham Park Lone Pine

A Lone Pine Tree planted in Fotheringham Park, Taree. It is accompanied by a stone plinth with the dedication plaque attached. 

Lone Pine Trees have been planted throughout Australia in memory of those who served in the First World War at Gallipoli. This tree was planted on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Lone Pine.

A fierce battle at Lone Pine at Gallipoli over four days resulted in the death of 2,000 Australians and 7,000 Turks. A single Pine was the sole survivor of trees which had been cut down by Turkish soldiers who used them to construct trenches and then cover them with branches. 

Two Australian soldiers retrieved pine cones and one soldier, Private Thomas Keith McDowell of the 23rd Battalion, brought one home. A member of his family managed to grow some trees.

Another soldier, Lance Corporal Benjamin Smith from the 33rd Battalion, also retrieved a cone and sent it to his mother Mrs McMullen in Australia. In time trees were grown, one was presented to her home town of Inverell and the other was forwarded to Canberra where it was planted at the Australian War Memorial in October 1934. The Yarralumla Nursery in Canberra now grows trees to be planted by schools and by other community organisations throughout Australia.