War Memorials in Australia

Macleod Avenue of Honour

Place: Macleod, Victoria, 3085
District: Central (VIC)
Orientation: Suburb of Melbourne
Location: Cherry Street
Position:
Ref: 30569

__________________________

The avenue of sugar gums (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) was planted in 1919 by patients from the nearby No 16 Australian General Hospital, Mont Park in memory of their comrades who fell in World War I.

Over the years the unmarked trees lost their significance and were recognised for what they were by only a few people.  The Macleod Progress Association, with devoted investigative work by one its members Mrs Audrey Mulder, uncovered the authentic lost history of the Avenue of Honour and saved it from the inevitable destruction that would have followed the proposed sale and development of the land.

Mont Park Mental Hospital was started in 1909 by the Victorian State Government but when a hospital was needed urgently for injured men returning from World War I the Federal Government took over the complex and completed the buildings for use as No. 16 Australian General Hospital. Mont Park, from 1916 to 1924.  No 1. Military Sanatorium and No. 14 Army Auxiliary Hospital were in the buildings nearby.  Thousands of returned men were catered for and 1200 were in residence at any one time.

Innovative treatments were needed for the new medical problems resulting from a different type of war.  Massage (the beginnings of physiotherapy), retraining and occupational therapy were introduced.  Great numbers of diverse classes were held and outdoor activities were encouraged.

Patients manned the dairy, cared for fowls and, under instruction from the head gardener Hugh Linaker who planned Mont Park Gardens, maintained a plant nursery, planted and tended the garden and kept the hospitals supplied with fruit and vegetables. Mr Linaker also supervised the planting of the Avenue of Honour.

No record can be found of a dedication ceremony and, 71 years later, on the 75th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli, the Macleod Progress Association dedicated a memorial stone and held a ceremony to honour the fallen from World War I, World War II and subsequent conflicts.

One of the 350 people attending the ceremony was 96-year-old Bill Gothard, a World War I veteran, who was a patient in the hospital when the trees were planted.

The following is the order of proceedings for the day:

UNVEILING AND DEDICATION OF THE AVENUE OF HONOUR MEMORIAL
MONDAY 23 APRIL 1990
11.00 am

Master of Ceremonies - MR H R JOHNSON OAM, President, Macleod Progress Association
    extends thanks to:
    * All who are taking part in the ceremony
    * All the generous people who have assisted in various ways.  Their names are listed on the back of the programme.  To these must be added the Returned
       Nurses Club of Victoria and the Greensborough RSL Servicemens Club.
    * Special thanks to Mr Laurie Reed, Manager of Mont Park and Mr Alan Inman and his staff who made such a superb job of setting the Memorial in these
       beautifully prepared surroundings.
    * Major Neville Tyson and the Salvation Army for providing canteen facilities in the manner service people know so well.
    * Andrea Bow, Secretary of Macleod Progress Association who planned and organised this event
    * Would everyone please sign the Attendance Book

Master of Ceremonies introduces
    CR LARRY STEPHENS, Mayor of Heidelberg who welcomes:
    * All present to the City of Heidelberg
    * The two special guests who had honoured us with their company
            Mr Cyril E Sainsbury who served in the 1st Battalion, New South Wales in France in 1918.  He also served during World War II with the Royal
            Australian Air Force in Borneo.  For many years he was Chief Architect for Defence Service Homes in Victoria.  During his service with the
            Commonwealth he was involved in the release of large tracts of land in Greensborough and Watsonia for War Service Homes.  Sainsbury Avenue,
            Greensborough was named after him.
            Mr Gerry Hevey enlisted in Ararat in 1915 when he saw the wounded men returning from Gallipoli.  His boss needed him and arranged for this to be
            annulled.  In 1916 in Melbourne he joined once again.  He had been in the Army Cadets so he spent only three weeks training at Broadmeadows before
            being sent overseas to Egypt, Italy and France.  He was wounded on the Hindenburg Line in August 1918 and still carries the shrapnel in his shoulder.
            He joined up again in 1939 and served until 1945 but was kept in Australia due to injuries from World War I.
    * The descendants of Hugh Linaker who was Landscape Gardener to the Lunacy Department of Victoria from 1912.  He planned Mont Park gardens and
       it was under his tuition and authority that the Avenue of Honour was planted.

Master of Ceremonies asks COLONEL O'DAY, Commander of Simpson Barracks to unveil the Avenue of Honour Memorial on behalf of the community and
present day serving men and women.

Master of Ceremonies asks CHAPLAIN A K TOMS, Senior Chaplain HQ 3rd Military District and CHAPLAIN G A WATSON, Co-Ord. Chaplain, Simpson
Barracks to dedicate the memorial with the following words -
    "Reverend Sirs, on behalf of the Macleod Progress Association we ask you to bid God's Blessing on this Memorial."
    The Chaplains approach the Memorial.

    RC Chaplain:    "Bless, O Lord, this memorial which we bless in your Name.  May it remind all who pass this way of those who served their Country,
                             even unto death.  May it remind us to pray for them, that they may gain eternal life.  May it remind Service men and women of their promise
                             to faithfully serve our Sovereign Lady the Queen for the common welfare of Australia.
                             Amen."

    PD Chaplain:    "In the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, we dedicate this Memorial to the glory of God, and in remembrance of those who laid down their lives
                            in our defence, whom God has gathered into the peace of His presence.  In the Name of The Father and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit.
                            Amen."

Master of Ceremonies asks MR ERIC BAKER and ALISON and CAROLYN STEVENS to plant a dwarf sugar gum to honour the fallen of World War II.
    ERIC BAKER joined the RAAF in 1939. Trained at Point Cook. Went to the Middle East in July 1940 where he served for three years with No. 3 Squadron.
    Returned to Australia in 1943.  Was in Canberra and Melbourne for a few months.  Then north to Townsville, New Guinea, Bougainville and New Britain.  He
    is an active member of Legacy - President of the Northern Branch of Melbourne in 1976.  He is the Legacy representative at Macleod Repatriation Hospital.

    ALISON and CAROLYN STEVEN'S great grandfather was an ANZAC with the 14th Battalion.  Their grandfather served on operations over Germany with
    the RAAF in World War II and their grandmother worked on Code messages in the Navy Office.

Master of Ceremonies asks MR STOREY (Vietnam Veteran) and MR CALLAHAN (Korea Veteran) to plant a companion dwarf sugar gum to honour the
fallen of Subsequent Conflicts.
    DUDLEY E CALLAHAN joined the AIF in 1947.  He toured Japan as a Bandsman (E flat Bass).  In 1948 he transferred to Signals and was in Japan when
    the Korean War broke out.  1st Division British Armed Forces had specialist people attached - Dudley Callahan was one of these (a cryptographer).  He flew
    to Korea where he was attached to the British Division for three months.  Was with 113 Australian Cypher Troop in Japan.  Was present when Australian
    soldiers pulled out of Korea.  Company Sergeant Major in Special Air Services in Perth in 1957.  Returned to Korea after the conflict.  Spent time with
    CCK Services.

    MAX STOREY was born and lives in the area.  He was called up for National Service in 1966.  Served in the Royal Australian Regiment which was later the
    first National Service unit to go to Vietnam where he served for one year.  He took up duty with Veterans Affairs (mostly in client services) and has been with
    the Department for 20 years.  For the last two years he has been executive officer at Macleod Repatriation Hospital.

Master of Ceremonies asks the following to place flowers on the Memorial:
    MRS J SCHAECKE, on behalf of World War I Widows
    MRS J ANDERSON on behalf of World War II Widows
    MISS M K TOBIN, nurse in Korea Campaign, on behalf of all nurses.
    Each escorted to the Memorial by MR JOHNSON

Master of Ceremonies asks MR H K CONWAY, served in World War II to read the Ode to the Fallen.
He made this interesting as well as moving by giving the background to the poem.
    The Ode has something in common with the Avenue of Honour in as much as it originated at roughly the same time.  The Ode is actually the fourth verse of a
    poem, "For the Fallen" which first appeared in The Times in London in 1914.  Laurence Binyon was an English poet and art historian born in Lancashire in
    1869, the son of a clergyman.  The Great War had a devastating effect on the English people and Binyon's poem was seen to reflect the feelings of a
    disillusioned generation.  The words of the fourth verse soon found their way on to memorials all over England and the British Legion of Ex-Servicemen
    adopted them for its own use when paying tribute to fallen comrades. In our country, in RSLs everywhere, the words form part of a standard RSL ritual and
    wherever Service Bodies gather to respect departed comrades, it is recited. 
    Would you please now join me in a tribute to all our servicemen and women who over the years have paid the Supreme Sacrifice.  Would you all please stand -
    gentlemen uncover.

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, or the years condemn      
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning     
We will remember them                                         
'LEST WE FORGET'

Last Post - Defence Force School of Music

Members of the Victorian Police Band will play while guests are served refreshments by the Salvation Army.