How a pine cone from Gallipoli germinated seeds of peace

When the guns fell silent after the bloody combat of Lone Pine at Gallipoli, Australian soldier Keith McDowell crawled from the trenches onto the battlefield to collect a pine cone.

It was a fragment of the solitary pine, high on a plateau, that gave its name to the infamous 1915 battle.

After four days of desperate hand-to-hand fighting, the Allies had a rare win. But it came at the cost of more than 2,000 Australian lives and perhaps as many as 6,000 Turks.

Years later the memento would become a living legacy of the Lone Pine conflict and a symbol of remembrance between two once-warring nations.

When Keith McDowell was shipped from Gallipoli to the Western Front he carried his pine cone souvenir in his haversack for several years.

Later in the war, he became seriously ill and was invalided home to south-west Victoria.

For 12 years he gave little thought to the pine cone until one day his wife mentioned that her aunt at Grassmere near Warrnambool, was a keen gardener.

Local historian David McGinness said “He took it across and [gave it to her] saying ‘Aunty you have a green thumb, see what you can do with this.'”

Emma Gray extracted five seeds and germinated four which grew into seedlings. By then their significance was well realised.

Trees, including avenues of honour, were commonplace forms of commemoration. The first of the seedlings were planted at a ceremony at Wattle Park, Melbourne in May 1933.

The others were planted at Warrnambool’s Botanic Gardens, the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne and at The Sisters, near Terang in south-west Victoria.

The latter two trees died in recent years but have been replaced with later generations grown from the Warrnambool tree.

It is Turkish red pine, Pinus brutia, native to the Gallipoli Peninsula and notoriously difficult to grow.

At least two other soldiers brought home pine cones from Gallipoli, that have also been used to propagate seedlings.

These were Aleppo Pines, thought to have grown from cones attached to imported timber used to wall the Turkish trenches at the battle of Lone Pine.

The gnarled and scaly-barked Warrnambool tree is a towering specimen with a plaque at its base detailing its heritage. It’s become a popular tourist attraction in recent years.

Propagating seeds from the ‘mother tree’ to create a new generation of commemorative trees has taken an enormous community commitment.

Local Lou Hollis has collected fallen pine cones, drying them, carefully extracting and planting the seeds.

“It can be anything from six to eighteen months till they germinate,” Ms Hollis said.

“And then they sit as about a three-centimetre fluffy pom pom on a tiny, delicate little stick before they grow any further.”

Retired doctor and skilled rose grower David Shimmin has helped.

He succeeded in striking four pine seedlings, one of which stands in the grounds of the Port Fairy Primary School.

Dr Shimmin has a special family connection to the Lone Pine story.

Eighty-six years after the Australians landed at Anzac Cove, Turkish-born Kedir Zehir and his Australian wife, Dr Shimmin’s daughter, arrived at Port Fairy.

“It is a symbol of life, as much as a human life as far as I’m concerned,” Dr Shimmin said.

“So the symbolism of it is what appeals to me.”

In Turkey, Mr Kedir had been a professional tour guide, familiar with the Gallipoli battlegrounds.

He was amazed to learn of the tough old Turkish pine, linking his homeland to the neighbouring town of Warrnambool.

“There’s a quite good saying in Turkish that says: You have to learn from your past otherwise your future won’t be bright,” Mr Zehir said.

“So we have to learn lessons, like the wars, there are no winners, heaps of young lives lost in that little piece of land,” Lindsay McDowell, the grandson of Keith McDowell who brought home the pine cone said.

“It has brought school kids together and it has brought people together on Anzac Day to see these little pine trees.”

 “I think it really is recreating an intense interest in Anzac day and this is seen by the Anzac day marches.”

The Friends of the Warrnambool Botanic Gardens have almost 100 seedlings available to organisations like the Returned Services League for commemorative plantings.

“I see that as very, very special from a human perspective,” said historian David McGinness.

“We have our grandparents, great-grandparents and so on but to be able to have a line of trees — it’s quite exciting to see that line of trees, to see that nurture and go forward.”

The locals are proud of their role in preserving this living link with Turkey and Australia’s wartime heritage.

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