{"id":268,"date":"2019-06-13T04:46:36","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T04:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/?p=268"},"modified":"2019-06-13T04:46:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T04:46:36","slug":"a-tree-and-a-family-a-century-on-from-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/06\/13\/a-tree-and-a-family-a-century-on-from-war\/","title":{"rendered":"A tree and a family: a century on from war"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Helen Hunter reflects on the ever-steady presence of a memorial tree in the years following conflict<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is nearly 40 degrees Celsius on the morning I decide to pay a visit to my grandfather\u2019s commemorative tree on the Ballarat Avenue of Honour.\u00a0 Wandering in the dry and narrow roadside strip (the space somewhat lacking no doubt as the Avenue was originally laid for horse and buggy) I am sweating, scorched by the sun that\u2019s barely filtered by the avenue\u2019s trees.<\/p>\n

I have proudly arrived to not only connect with the tree I\u2019ve not visited in perhaps 20 years, but also to run my own personal test of the mapping feature found on the City of Ballarat Honouring Our Anzacs<\/em><\/a> website.\u00a0 The website\u2019s fantastic pin-point mapping of my grandfather\u2019s tree has informed me of the location of his tree among the 22 kilometre stretch of elms, American Ash and English Ash.\u00a0 It also informs me of the tree number (\u201c3027\u201d), tree species (\u201cUlmus Sp.\u201d) and perhaps most excitingly of all, the name of the E.Lucas & Co. employee who planted the tree (a certain Miss E. Pitts).<\/p>\n

Ballarat\u2019s E.Lucas & Co. textile company, under the leadership of dynamic sales manager Tilly Thompson, famously rallied its staff of 450 young seamstresses to fundraise and plant out the entire avenue of trees. Planting was carried out from June 1917 in eight rounds, with the assistance of the Boy Scouts, oversight by professional gardeners and carpenters to install the tree guards, as well as plantings carried out by visiting dignitaries.<\/p>\n

Before today, my regular trips along the Avenue to visit a friend were coloured by the anxious and somewhat guilty feeling of knowing that I couldn\u2019t locate my beloved Pa\u2019s tree.<\/p>\n

My grandfather, Alexander Hunter, left his family home in Buninyong in September 1917, aged 18, to enlist in the war. Over the years I\u2019ve seen many sepia-toned photographs of my grandfather in uniform. I\u2019ve scratched the surface of the story, patched together romantic notions, assumptions and snippets of information based on hazy memories of sitting down to dinner with my grandfather as a child.\u00a0 But today\u2019s visit to the tree represents me truly deciding to take stock of his story \u2013 to take the time to see his tree as a precursor to learning more of what he went through and saw while he was at war.<\/p>\n

\"AlexanderEyresHunterOnIndianMotorbike-1918-2\"<\/a>
Alexander, in Buninyong, 1918<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I navigate the long Avenue searching for his tree the heat radiating from the tar is blistering and I imagine a pleasant and slower-paced setting 100 years ago when it was planted. I remind myself that these few minutes staggering roadside in a sweat hardly compares to the privations any one of these soldiers, paid tribute to by the surrounding trees, would have gone through.\u00a0 For that matter even Miss E Pitts herself would have likely endured more hardship than I, weathering the elements in the winter of 1918 to voluntarily dig and plant my grandfather\u2019s tree.<\/p>\n

I have read that such loving care was taken in the preparation for tree planting by the Lucas Girls that one of the soldier\u2019s family members was personally invited to attend the planting alongside a member of the Lucas and Co. staff. The Star<\/em> reported during the first round of tree plantings in 1917:<\/p>\n

A personal letter has been sent by the young lady who is to plant the tree to the next of kin of each soldier, requesting their presence and assistance.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a memory of visiting the tree as a young girl, pulling in to the side of the road on the Avenue of Honour, on one of many lengthy family road trips. Fields stretching in the distance either side of the avenue.<\/p>\n

We bundled out of the car to see \u2018Pa\u2019s tree\u2019, a silent sturdy symbol of his participation in a war that was but a fairy tale to me.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We gathered around the tree for a family photo and proudly took in our grandfather\u2019s initials and surname set into the bronze commemorative plaque at the tree\u2019s foot.<\/p>\n

\"Hunter<\/a>
The author (in fetching quilted overalls) with family members visiting Alex\u2019s tree in the early 1980s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My grandfather at the time was in his early eighties and living in Donald in the Wimmera, a retired mechanic. Following the war he returned to Australia in late 1919.\u00a0 From the age of 20 he spent some seven years farming on land owned by his family in Scotsburn, unable (or unwilling) to work inside following the long stretch of time abroad, wandering in the outdoors and sleeping in rough accommodation.<\/p>\n

I recall a visit to his tree in my early twenties which came with a much fuller understanding of the war he took part in. Having studied trench warfare in World War I at university, my thoughts now ran to the true horrors of war \u2013 the long lists of dead, the drawn out stand-stills inherent to trench warfare, fraternisation between enemy troops, followed by the brutal self-sacrifice of surprise offensives.\u00a0 I wonder at just how much my grandfather actually saw.<\/p>\n

I cross the road and begin scanning the plaques of the trees, realising happily that the numbers are steadily approaching \u201c3027\u201d.\u00a0 I see the tree of Frank Penhalluriack, a distinctive surname I remember well as belonging to family friends of my grandfather. And then two trees down I am finally at Pa\u2019s tree: AE Hunter, 2nd<\/sup> FCE (2nd<\/sup> Field Company Engineers).<\/p>\n

I take in the fields running behind his tree and am pleased to realise that the tree itself is likely the original planted 100 years ago.\u00a0 A full century has elapsed since my grandfather took the journey alongside so many other young men, into an unknown battle that was more protracted and horrific than any of them could have foreseen.\u00a0 \u00a0I struggle to realise that the man I knew was really, when this happened, but a boy just out of his teen years.\u00a0 Boys of the same age today would be, mercifully, \u00a0focussed on beginning summer jobs, playing their X-Box or making plans for university, not engaged in a conflict they barely had the life experience to understand let alone give their lives and the lives of others for.<\/p>\n

\"HB<\/a>
Alexander’s son, Bruce, visiting the tree in 1967<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"HB<\/a>
Bruce at another visit to Alexander’s tree, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tree, for our family, has been a spot to stop by over the years, to think about the man we loved and admired so much, and to feel a connection to those days so long gone but so influential on the families, towns and people we know today.\u00a0 Today, while my grandfather\u2019s grave may be many hour\u2019s drive away this simple tree is not so far and is a touch point to his and our past.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have a relative or family friend who enlisted for war in Ballarat or Ballarat East? Do you visit their tree or are you perhaps curious to locate their tree for the first time? A complete database of the 3,801 Ballarat men and women who served in World War One is accessible on the <\/strong>Honouring Our Anzacs<\/strong><\/a> website, where you can retrieve a serviceperson\u2019s biography in brief, their commemorative tree number and a map of its location.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We would love to hear your stories of visits to Ballarat\u2019s Avenue of Honour and what it means to you.\u00a0 Please share your pictures or memories in the comments.\u00a0 If you have a longer piece you would like to contribute to the HUL blog please email Helen Hunter on <\/strong>h.hunter@federation.edu.au<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Helen Hunter is a historian and researcher based at Federation University Australia\u2019s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI).<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Helen Hunter reflects on the ever-steady presence of a memorial tree in the years following conflict It is nearly 40 degrees Celsius on the morning I decide to pay a visit to my grandfather\u2019s commemorative tree on the Ballarat Avenue of Honour.\u00a0 Wandering in the dry and narrow roadside strip (the space somewhat lacking no … Continue reading A tree and a family: a century on from war<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[61,60,7,62,63],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hulballarat.org.au\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}