McDonald Park Primary School commemorated Remembrance Day last Thursday with a ceremony attended by students, staff and eight Mount Gambier Community RSL representatives including president Bob Sandow.
The ceremony included a wreath presentation, The Last Post, a minute of silence, a recitation of Lest We Forget and The Ode, and the National Anthem.
Children laid homemade wreaths around the school’s Lone Pine tree before ambassadors and staff joined RSL guests for morning tea and Anzac biscuits in the kitchen.
Mount Gambier Community RSL representatives shared war memorabilia including hats, a coat, rations and a pay book and there was a screening of the local news when the Lone Pine tree seedling was first planted.
McDonald Park Primary School former teacher/librarian Robyn Williams, also in attendance, was acknowledged for her instrumental organisation of the school’s Lone Pine tree planted 10 years ago.
Mrs Williams was inspired by the picture book Lone Pine by Susie Brown and Margaret Warner based on the true story of the infamous Anzac battle of Lone Pine and the commemorative seedlings.
The Battle of Lone Pine took place from August 6-10, 1915, during World War I, resulting in almost 2300 Australian soldiers killed or wounded.
The famous battle of the Gallipoli campaign was aptly named because the ridges, once covered with the Aleppo pine, had been cleared by Turkish troops and placed over the top of their trenches to provide cover, leaving just one solitary pine standing.
Benjamin Smith from Inverell, New South Wales fought alongside his brother Mark who died in the Battle of Lone Pine.
Benjamin’s twin brother Bertered also fought in the 1st Australian Imperial Force.
His mother planted three seeds shed by the cone, and like the story of the three boys, two trees lived and one died.
Mrs McMullen, the boys’ mother, sent one of the trees (then about 1.2 metres high) to the opening of the Canberra War Memorial and asked that it be planted in memory of her own son and all the other sons who fell at Lone Pine.
A few months later she sent the other tree to Inverell in NSW, where the boys were born and bred.
The local council planted it on the Vivian Street side of the Inverell Park where it grows today under the care of the Inverell Branch of the RSL.
The tree she sent to Canberra grows adjacent to the War Memorial, it carries a plaque telling its story as well as a message of remembrance for lost friends and comrades, for all Veterans and especially for the Anzacs who stop for a while under the shade of its branches.
Seeds from that tree have been propagated to a new generation of trees that are now used across Australia for commemorative purposes, one of which is planted at McDonald Park Primary School.
McDonald Park Primary School Foundation-Year 6 teacher/librarian Suzanne Harding now looks after the school’s Lone Pine tree having taken over from Mrs Williams.
“Mrs Williams was working with the older students and thought it would be a great project for us to have in our school,” she said.
“Having something like this as a tradition in the school that is revisited every year is very important.
“It is significant the students know what the tree is and the story behind it.
“The oldest students have heard the story over a few years and can retell the tale to the younger children.
“We also hope that when they leave school, they look back and remember it and when their children come here, we are hoping that will continue.”
