Leongatha & District Historical Society’s annual Anzac lunch featured speaker Jillian Durance who gave attendees an appreciation of the importance of the Kongwak Avenue of Honour and that form of commemoration more broadly.
She spoke of the WWI inspired origins of memorials that contributed to the establishment of Avenues of Honour.
“The memorial movement began long before the war was over,” Jillian said, explaining that stemmed from the fact the fallen were left in faraway lands, unable to be returned to families.
She read out an August 1918 newspaper report that appeared in the Great Southern Advocate shortly after the Kongwak Avenue of Honour was planted and stated it was done “in honour of the boys who have enlisted from the district”, making it clear the tribute was not only for those who lost their lives.
Jillian spoke of the lead up to the establishment of Kongwak’s Avenue of Honour.
“It was in 1917, a year before the Great War was over that Avenues of Honour began to be planted throughout Australia, particularly in Victoria,” she said.
“Ken Inglis, in his iconic text ‘Sacred Places’, claims that compared to other forms of monument like cenotaph, arch, statue, the Avenue of Honour was a novelty and very much a homegrown Australian endeavour.”
Jillian read a passage Ken wrote about the origins of Avenues of Honour.
“The first examples were planted during the war in response to an official initiative when the Victorian State Recruiting Committee wrote to all municipalities and shires in 1917 recommending that an assurance should be given to every intending recruit that his name will be memorialised in an Avenue of Honour,” the passage read.
That demonstrated that as well as honouring those who had already served, Avenues of Honour were used as an enticement for others to join up as enlistment numbers dwindled in a war-weary nation.
Kongwak’s Avenue of Honour was planted shortly after those in Wooreen and Leongatha.
Interestingly, it comprises a variety of deciduous trees, not just one species, with Jillian rattling off an impressive list featuring Lombardy Poplars, Turkey Oaks, English Elm, Pin Oak and Horse Chestnut.
She also showed “a magnificent Bunya-Bunya Pine” that holds pride of place outside the Kongwak Hall.
Attendees heard about the settlement of Kongwak and the contributions of people who served in both World Wars, with the Avenue of Honour expanded in acknowledgement of those who enlisted in WWII.
