By Shelby Brooks
A piece of Gallipoli will live on in Pakenham in a newly unveiled memorial garden.
The Oak Tree Garden, featuring a Lone Pine seedling, was ceremoniously opened at Main Street Village Pakenham Retirement Community on Tuesday 25 April.
The tree and plaque was donated by Melbourne Legacy upon resident Colin Tidball’s request.
Mr Tidball, who is a navy veteran and Legacy member, wanted the retirement community to have a place where people could reflect on Australia’s service history.
Pakenham siblings Brenda O’Brien and Greg Marshall were invited by Mr Tidball to reveal the plaque on behalf of their grandfather Thomas Murphy, who was in the first wave of soldiers to reach Gallipoli in 1915.
Miraculously, Thomas survived and later served in Somme before returning home and moving to Pakenham later in life.
Berwick RSL and Melbourne Legacy member Bill Rogers spoke at the ceremony of the history of the Lone Pine.
The Lone Pine seedling is known as the Pinus brutia variety and is a descendant of the Lone Pine where it once stood near Plateau 400 on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, Mr Rogers said.
The original Lone Pine was obliterated by heavy artillery fire but Private Thomas Keith McDowell souvenired one of the cones from the remains of the Lone Pine.
It is from that cone that seedlings have been grown for the past 90 years.
Mr Rogers said Burnley Horticultural College took on the responsibility of the propagation and cultivation of all future Lone Pine seedlings. They continue to provide seedlings to Melbourne Legacy for distribution throughout the state.
