Long Plain Soldier's Memorial Hall Memorial Trees

About

At the opening of the Long Plain Soldier's Memorial Hall on 7 June 1922, it was announced the community intended to plant trees in memory of "Long Plain boys who had died at the front" (The Inverell Times, 9 June 1922).  Around a year later, on the morning of Saturday, 18 August 1923, friends and relatives of the fallen planted six trees on the grounds of the hall. They were Kurrajong trees, Brachychiton populneus, in reference to the group of First World War enlistees from Inverell who became known as 'The Kurrajongs'.  Some 50 people attended the planting, and full details of the event and the names of the soldiers were published in the Inverell Times the following day. The order of planting was: Mrs Prince planted the first tree in memory of her son, Robert Worgan; Mrs T. Mitchell for her nephew, Thomas McKenzie; Mrs Leach for her brother, Walter Winkworth; Mr Lowrey Bell for his cousin, Sydney Colley; Mrs Marquhardt for her nephew, Harold Dix; Mr T.G.A. Mitchell for his old friend, William Kent. In 2021, only two of these trees survive. They are both in close proximity to the hall.

Photos