Lone Pine Avenue
From The Orange Wiki
What used to be known as Cemetery Lane is now know as Lone Pine Avenue. It takes its name from the pine tree at the intersection of the Lane and Bathurst Road.
The Lone Pine (Pinus halepensis) is named after a single tree that is believed to have been destroyed during the initial battle at Gallipoli in 1915. The plateau was originally covered with scrub with a single stunted pine tree. The soldiers being influenced by a popular song first called it The Lonesome Pine, but the tree and the area were soon to be known as Lone Pine.
The tree did not last long and its boughs were used by the Turks to cover the trenches. After the fighting in which 7000 Australians and Turks were killed or wounded, at least two cones were taken from the branches and brought home to Australia.
Lance Corporal Benjamin Smith of the 3rd Battalion gave a cone to his mother, Mrs McMullin of Inverell who propagated the seeds some 13 years later. Two seedlings were raised, one being planted by the Duke of Gloucester at the Canberra War Memorial on 24 October 1934, the other was presented to the town of Inverell.
It is believed this tree is of the third generation and part of a 1930s fund raising scheme by the Returned Sailor’s and Soldiers’ Imperial League of Australia (RS&SILA). The tree was donated by the Orange Sub-branch of the RS & SILA.
- Hughes, L. Streets of town, [Orange and District Historical Society]. n.d.
- Survey of Orange Significant Landscape Features
