Walkerston Community News Pages: The Story of the Lone Pine tree at Walkerston's Anzac Park

WALKERSTON'S LONE PINE

As we congregate at Walkerston's Anzac Park each Anzac Day, and each Remembrance Day, to commemorate the fallen, the history of the pine tree planted near the Memorial Gate would perhaps be of some interest.

During the first World War’s Gallipoli campaign - in which Australian troops took part – one battle involved the capture of a ridge, which became known as Lone Pine Ridge because the Turkish troops cut down all the trees to cover their trenches, leaving just one standing – a lone pine.
The Australian Forces captured Lone Pine, albeit at a huge cost of 2000 Australian dead and 7000 Turkish. An Australian soldier, whose brother had been killed during this battle, collected one of the pine cones at Lone Pine and sent it to his mother, Mrs McMullen of Inverell NSW, in memory of his brother.

This cone was stored away until 1928 when Mrs McMullen was able to grow two seedlings from it. One was presented to the City of Inverell, and the other to the Parks Gardens in Canberra, where it was planted at the Australian War Memorial in October 1934 with the Duke of Gloucester officiating.Walkerston’s pine tree – an Aleppo Pine ‘Pinus halepensis’, a tree found in the eastern Mediterranean region – is a descendant of the tree at the Australian War Memorial, which today is over 20 metres high, and is a living memorial to all who have died in battles of war.
This seedling was planted on August 12th, 2006 by the then Member for Dawson, Deanne Kelly.

Aleppo Pine - Pinus helapensus
Robert O'Brien
more information @ www.wildlifetrusts.org

The township of Walkerston

The township of Walkerston (population 4,500) is situated approximately 11 kilometres west of Mackay, on the Peak Downs Highway, and is some 400 kilometers north of the Tropic of Capricorn. It is a quaint and picturesque country town with a creek running through it. One appealing attribute on the outskirts of the township is the historic Greenmount Homestead which was first settled in 1862 by Captain John Mackay. The homestead was built in 1912 by the Cook family and is meticulously preserved with its traditional Queensland architecture. It is the only heritage listed homestead in the Mackay region, complete with original furniture, fittings and ornaments.

What's in a Name?

Have you ever wondered how Walkerston became known as Walkerston, or even how Scrubby became Scrubby? The story goes that during the late 1800s there was a sugar plantation, in the Homebush area, owned by John Walker. Many of the workers at that farm, at times joined by bullock teams travelling west, camped in the scrub near the crossing of the creek - later named Baker´s Creek - just east of where the Kirkup Bridge is situated today. The name Scrubby came about by the word ‘scrub’ developing into ‘Scrubby’. The north-eastern part of the Walkerston township of today – down the bottom end of Fadden Street going into McColl Street – was then known as Alsatia, after the French Alsace-Lorraine region, perhaps at that time part of Germany. As it was mainly the workers from Walker’s plantation who camped in the Scrubby area, the teamsters passing through referred to it as ‘Walker’s town’. This gradually modified to Walkerston as the area became more developed, and then established as a proper township. The whole area of Alsatia and Scrubby/Walkers-town was officially named Walkerston in 1881. Today Walkerston is still referred to as Scrubby or Scrubbytown, albeit mostly by the older generations. Consequently, if you live in this lovely part of the country, you could possibly be classed as either a ‘Walkerstonian’ or a ‘Scrubby-ite’.