By KATH GANNAWAY
STUDENTS from schools throughout Upper Yarra placed flags on the 34 trees that make up the Yarra Junction Anzac Avenue of Honour at the official opening on Sunday, 12 April.
The project hosted by Upper Yarra RSL as a tribute to the 34 men from the district who gave their lives in WWI has been several years in the making.
The trees, protected by timber tree guards of the era, have been planted on the Warburton Rail Trail and identify the individual men, their age and where they died.
Upper Yarra RSL member Jeff Smith said in his introduction to the event it was very much a community contribution to the Centenary of WWI.
“The whole concept of this was to try to get people to reconnect with our past and in particular our Anzacs,’ he said.
He said the Avenue of Honour and the finalisation of the cenotaph with the planting of two palm trees, paid tribute to the men who died.
“They, more than anything else defined what Australians are, what we represent and what we offer the world,” he said.
Mr Smith paid particular tribute to Rhonda Simmonds from the Upper Yarra Museum who he said had driven the project and whose exhaustive research had given the project form and authenticity.
Casey MP, Tony Smith, and Yarra Ranges O’Shannessy Ward representative, Cr Jim Child, spoke of the sacrifice of war and in particular of the price paid by local people.
Mr Smith said the men represented along the avenue would be said to know that their war was not the ‘war to end all wars’.
“They would be amazed at the Australia of today, and humbled that they are being remembered in this way,” he said.
“I think they would be especially touched, not just that there are so many local residents here, but that the future of Australia, the many schoolchildren here today, because that’s the what they were fighting for,” he said.
The project includes the Junction to Gallipoli project which honours the local servicemen those killed at Gallipoli.
The Yarra Junction Avenue of Honour is the first stage of a project that will see avenues planted in other Upper Yarra townships.
