Remembrance Driveway Plantation, Yarra

This war memorial forms part of the Remembrance Driveway, a living memorial that runs along the Hume and Federal Highways between Sydney and Canberra. The plantation is located at the junction of the highways at Yarra, NSW.

The site was first established in 1989-1990, when 837 trees were planted by the Roads and Traffic Authority. It was dedicated in August 1991 by the Federal Minister for Land Transport, the Hon. Bob Brown.

The memorial was inspired by the students of Mackay Central State School, who had established a war memorial on former railway land in Tennyson Street, Mackay, and by former students who had established and maintained a memorial arbour on the banks of the Pioneer River, since destroyed by flooding.  

Statement of Significance provided by Peter Jardine, 2022:

The plantation is in a prominent location on the remembrance driveway. It is significant in being the first regional area outside of NSW to be recognised on the drive (Oral History of The Remembrance Driveway. CD 1 Track 11). The plantation, in a sense, replaces a memorial arbour lost to flooding in Mackay.