Objects of Substance- ANZAC Grove

who travelled far from home to care for them.

In the Editorial of the June 1920 magazine, the Grove is mentioned along with past pupils who were in attendance at the planting ceremony: Grace Wilson (1898), Jessie Andrews (1899), and Eunice Paten (1898). Matron Wilson joined the AIF in 1915 and departed on the SS Mooltan for Lemnos, where she was appointed Principal Matron of 3 rd Australian General Hospital. She went on to nurse at Abassia (Cairo), London, and the Somme in France. Jessie Andrews joined the AIF on 11 November 1914 and nursed in England and France while Eunice Paten joined the AIF on 21 September 1914 and served in Egypt, England, and France. Their names are inscribed on the Old Girls War Memorial Honour Board along with the names of eleven other Grammar students in the Annie Mackay Room. In 2013, following the purchase of the Fig Tree Pocket grounds, Girls Grammar began to develop and plant hundreds of trees on the site. In 2015, the celebration for the opening of Rangakarra was seen as the perfect opportunity to reinstate the “Anzac Grove” which had originated on the Spring Hill site. Naturally, the grove would include wattles. However, to accompany those trees, the School purchased a very special Lone Pine seedling from the Australian War Memorial nursery.

23 May, 2015: Rangakarra Open Day and the planting of the Lone Pine by the President of the OGA, Janine Schmidt (Hogg 1964) and Head Girl Gulbransen-Diaz

The Battle of Lone Pine is one of the most famous assaults by the Anzacs during the Gallipoli campaign. On 6 August 1915, troops were charged with capturing a key hilltop position. Rushing across No Man’s Land, the Australian troops succeeded in capturing the Turkish positions and withstood counterattacks. Six Australian battalions suffered nearly 2,300 killed and wounded at Lone Pine, where seven Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross. The highest number ever awarded to an Australian division for one action. Today, Lone Pine cemetery is the location of the Memorial to the Missing, on ground captured by the Anzacs in that 1915 battle. It commemorates the 4,224 Australians who died at Gallipoli and have no known grave, as well as the 652 Australians buried there.

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