Avenue’s condition gauged
TREE SPECIALIST EXPERTS ENGAGED TO ASSESS CALDER WOODBURN MEMORIAL AVENUE AND PLAN UPKEEP
After a three-year hiatus, the Calder Woodburn Memorial Avenue Advisory Committee is back in action, with an arboriculturalist engaged to assess the condition of Greater Shepparton’s unique war memorial.
The advisory committee met a number of times in 2017 and 2018 after it was established to advocate for the future conservation of the Calder Woodburn Memorial Avenue, Australia’s longest memorial of its kind, located along a stretch of the Goulburn Valley Hwy south of Shepparton.
Greater Shepparton City Council’s sustainable development director Geraldine Christou said the committee had not met since then, owing to the need to undertake a condition assessment of the eucalyptus trees planted in the 1940s by Fen Woodburn.
“This assessment is necessary to understand how much it will cost and what techniques should be employed to restore the memorial avenue, which will inform a future maintenance regime to remove overgrowth, and replant missing memorial avenue trees,” Ms Christou said.
Using funding from Regional Roads Victoria, the council has recently engaged an arboriculturalist to undertake this assessment of the northern section of the memorial avenue, along Goulburn Valley Hwy from Seven Creeks to Union Rd.
A final report is expected later this year, provided COVID-19 restrictions don’t cause a delay.
“Once this has been completed, the committee will be reformed to consider the document and provide advice to council on how best to realise conservation works to the memorial avenue,” Ms Christou said.
The advisory committee is chaired by Regional Roads Victoria and has representatives from a number of local bodies and organisations, and up to four community representatives. Planted along Goulburn Valley Hwy, the memorial spans almost 20 km and originally included more than 2400 native trees, commemorating all those who served in World War II from Shepparton and surrounding areas.
The memorial avenue is included in the Victorian Heritage Register for its historic, aesthetic and social significance to the state of Victoria.
Ms Christou said the vision was for an ambitious restoration of the landmark, as a memorial to all servicemen from the Goulburn Valley who fell during World War II, and to acknowledge the growing role of the memorial avenue as a key environmental corridor linking the major river systems traversing the City of Greater Shepparton.