David Lawry and Dr Darren Peacock
Treenet Sociable Technology
Background
The Avenues of Honour 1915-2015 project is a national initiative to honour with a tree the memory of every individual who has made the supreme sacrifice on behalf of all Australians, by documenting, preserving and reinstating the original, and establishing new Avenues of Honour, during the Centenary of World War I in the period April 25th 2015 through to November 11th 2018. The Project was launched at the 5th National TREENET Symposium in 2004.
The arboreal Avenue of Honour has been an enduring and highly popular form of public commemoration of military service in Australia. More than any other nation, Australians have chosen to recognise service and sacrifice through community plantings of memorial Avenues of Honour. The earliest recorded Avenues of Honour were created in response to Australia’s participation in the Boer War, but the majority were established during and after World War I and, to a lesser extent, World War II.
At the time Sarah Cockerell listed 185 avenues as surviving in some form (2) but after a nationwide survey in 2006 she recorded 567 known Avenues of Honour across Australia, most of which remained in some form, although some were depleted or in poor condition. Across all of the existing Avenues there are estimated to be more than 100 000 living trees. These Avenues and the trees that comprise them are typically on public land and, most often, are managed by Local Councils, although Avenues may also have dedicated local management committees.
Known Avenues of Honour by State, as of 2006
| State | Number identified |
| ACT | 2 |
| NSW | 67 |
| QLD | 52 |
| SA | 38 |
| TAS | 69 |
| VIC | 312 |
| WA | 27 |
| TOTAL | 567 |
Purpose
The purpose of the Avenues of Honour 2015 project is to ensure that Avenues continue to play an important role in community commemoration of military service and sacrifice. A particular goal for the Anzac Centenary is to ensure that each of those Australians who made the supreme sacrifice in serving their country are recognised with a thriving living memorial that is known, recognised and discoverable by their descendants, relatives and by local communities as well as by any other interested parties.
Project Scope
The TREENET Avenues of Honour project provides national leadership and co-ordination of community-based initiatives to restore, reinstate and establish memorial Avenues of Honour to coincide with the Anzac Centenary and the 100th anniversary of the major events of World War I over the period 1914-1918.
The project will undertake research and documentation of existing Avenues, creating a comprehensive and accessible online record of all Avenues using the latest social and mobile web technologies and providing advice and support to local communities to restore, reinstate or establish Avenues of Honour as part of their commemorations of the Anzac Centenary and the 100th Anniversary of the events of World War I.
The project is using contemporary web-based technologies to create an enduring and comprehensive national online record of existing, planned and lost Avenues as a precursor to the engagement of local communities in their preservation, restoration and establishment anytime in the future.
Over 5 years, the project will complete the task of documenting all avenues, trees and persons commemorated, provide assistance and training to local communities to research document and promote their avenues and provide technical advice and support in the restoration of existing avenues and the establishment of new ones.
There are three main areas of project activity (see the project plan at Section 7 for details)
Research and documentation
Developing and managing an integrated national online reference service for Australia’s Avenues of Honour covering their history, significance, current condition and future management and sustainability.
Community engagement
Inspiring local communities to recognise the value of their existing living memorials and to undertake restoration and planting initiatives as a national community-based commemoration for the Centenary of Anzac and the 100th anniversary of events during World War I.
Supporting community activities
Providing standard operating procedures for undertaking Avenue projects at the community level as well as technical assessment and advice in specialist areas relating to trees, historical data, information sharing and commemorative protocol.
Outcomes
The project aims to deliver outcomes in the short term during the course of the project and in the long term by building sustainable online information resources and local communities of interest to support Avenues of Honour into the future. In particular, the project will achieve:
- Increased public awareness and appreciation of Avenues of Honour as a record and monument to military service and sacrifice.
- An integrated national web-based information resource about Avenues of Honours and the people and service they commemorate.
- Sustainable local communities of interest around each Avenue
- Improvement in the long term health and sustainability of Australia’s Avenues of Honour.
- New investment in commemorative plantings.
- Enhanced community engagement through commemoration activities associated with the Avenues during the Anzac Centenary and the 100th Anniversary of the events of World War 1.
- Increased accessibility of local history records about the experience of Australia’s service men and women.
- Improving management practices for public arboreal projects.
- Education, public awareness and community access.
Technical development
The project requires the development of technologically-based products and infrastructure to capture, store and publish information about Avenues of Honour and to make it accessible to communities, families, researchers and students. This infrastructure is at the heart of the project as it brings together for the first time all information about Australia’s Avenues of Honour and the people and service that they commemorate. The project will commission and manage the development of an integrated technical infrastructure that will support community participation in the creation and sharing of information about the avenues and in creating and sharing the memories of communities and families about those who served.
In 2013, the technical infrastructure to support the project was scoped and development was undertaken on data requirements by Sociable Technology. The first component, the Avenues of Honour project blog, was launched in June.
There are four main components for the technical infrastructure
The Avenues of Honour wiki website will, on completion, create a national community-sourced encyclopedia of information about the Avenues and the people and service they commemorate. The use of wiki technology enables people across Australia to add information and memories about the Avenues and the people associated with them. The website will become an indispensable permanent online reference to the history and health of every Avenue.
Mobile applications will assist in the capture of information about Avenues, plaques and trees in the research phase and provide information from the wiki website for mobile devices such as phones, tablets and GPS devices.
The project blog launched in April 2013 will document and promote the project over 5 years to keep participants informed and engaged. The blog integrates with social media platforms and e-newsletters to promote the Avenues project and document its progress and successes.
Avenues of Honour project blog site, launched June 2013 at www.avenuesofhonour.org
The Avenues of Honour database will maintain a full data record of each Avenue for the purpose of supporting effective planning and future management of Australia’s Avenues.
There are many fields of information that should be captured if possible for each tree or Avenue. At the 2007 TREENET Symposium Ben Kenyon (3) presented a draft standard for the Avenues of Honour database which has been a key document in the design of the currently proposed database.
In planning for the technical infrastructure to support the online presence of the Avenues of Honour project, the data standard has been updated and extended.
Data standard for Avenues of Honour Project, December 2012
This data standard identifies the data fields to be used in the master database and wiki website. Relationships between the fields are built into the data model.
The standard is divided into 6 parts, covering:
- Avenues
- Trees
- Plaques
- Persons Commemorated
- Species
- Contacts
AVENUES
Field ID Field
Identification fields
101 Avenue ID Number
102 Avenue Type
103 Avenue Name
104 Street Address
105 Locality name
106 State/Territory
107 Postcode
108 Geo-cordinates
109 Location details
110 Local Government Area (LGA)
111 State/Territory electorate
112 Federal electorate
Description fields
113 Date of planting
114 Planted by
115 Designed by
116 Original total number of trees
117 Existing number of trees
118 Proposed number of trees
119 Avenue length
120 Description
121 Original features
122 Notes
123 Species
124 Signage
125 Plaques
Significance fields
126 Conflict/s commemorated
127 Original purpose
128 Recognition
129 History
130 References
Management fields
131 Managing authority
132 Managing authority contact person
133 Associated groups
134 Condition assessment
135 Major changes over time
136 Known Hazards
137 Donors
138 Local management issues
Audio visual fields
139 Photographs
140 Audio
141 Video
TREES
Identification fields
201 Tree ID number
202 Avenue Name
203 Geo-cordinates
204 Plaque
Description fields
205 Genus
206 Species
207 Sub species
208 Date planted
209 Person/People Commemorated
Condition fields
210 Age
211 Height
212 Diameter at Breast Height (DBH)
213 Health
214 Structure
215 Useful life expectancy
216 Likely works
217 Assessed by
218 Assessed on
Audio visual fields
219 Photographs
220 Audio
221 Video
PLAQUES
Identification fields
301 Plaque ID number
302 Tree ID
303 Avenue name
304 Plaque location
305 Plaque orientation
306 Plaque geo-cordinates
307 Plaque material
308 Plaque condition
309 Plaque Manufacturer
Audio visual fields
310 Photographs
PERSON/PEOPLE COMMEMORATED
Field
ID Field
Identification fields
Individual/Group
401 Surname
402 Also known as
403 First name
404 Other names
405 Service ID
406 Rank
407 Date of birth
408 Place of birth
409 Date of decease
410 Place of decease
Service history
411 Date of enlisting
412 Place of enlisting
413 Service
414 Unit name
415 Conflict
416 Deployments
417 Died on active service
418 Date of decease
419 NAA Enlistment Record
420 NAA Service Record
421 AWM Roll of Honour
422 Date of embarkation
423 Place of embarkation
424 Name of Embarkation ship
425
Contact information
426 Next of kin (enlistment record)
427 Known kin relative
428 Historical information contact
Audio visual fields
429 Photographs
430 Audio
431 Video
SPECIES
Field ID Field
Identification fields
501 Species
502 Common name
503 Height
504 Longevity
Audio visual fields
505 Photographs
CONTACTS
Field
ID Field
601 Avenue ID
602 Tree ID
603 Service ID
604 Type of contact
605 Title
606 Contact person surname
607 Contact person first name
608 Organisation
609 Postal address
609 Phone
610 Email
611 Web address
Participation and promotion
The Avenues of Honour project is based on widespread public participation which requires engagement with a broad range of project stakeholders.
The following stakeholder map outlines the key stakeholder groups in the project. A stakeholder engagement strategy will be developed as part of the project’s Marketing and Communication Plan.
Stakeholder map
| Individual or Group | Nature of Stakeholding | Issues of interest and concern |
| TREENET, Adelaide | Project Manager Expert Arborist advice | Preservation of existing Avenue Establishment of new Avenues Raising awareness of urban arboriculture |
| Local Councils, 562 local government bodies and State and National peak bodies | Management of Avenues Community development Local commemoration of Anzac Centenary | Maintenance of Avenues Community participation Cost benefit of establishing/maintaining avenues |
| RSL and other service organisations, 1300 RSL local sub-branches, state branches, national peak bodies, approximately 180 000 members | Preservation of existing memorials Recognition of service and sacrifice Community education and participation | Appropriate recognition and commemoration in memorials and events |
| Arborist and landscape professionals | Preserving and promoting urban arboriculture | Maintaining existing avenues Establishing future sustainability |
| Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments | Effective commemoration of Anzac Centenary Funding and leadership of commemoration activities | Participation in commemoration activities Cost effectiveness Recognition of government activity/services |
| Australian War Memorial | Leading organisation for commemoration of Australian military service | Effective commemoration of Anzac Centenary |
| Local communities | Recognition of local contribution Preservation of existing memorials | Appropriate commemoration activities and memorials |
| Relatives and descendants of persons commemorated | Living connection to those who served and died. Public remembrance and respect. | Appropriate commemoration activities and memorials Opportunities to participate. |
| National Trust and other Heritage bodies, including government agencies Local, state and national organisations and peak bodies | Protection and preservation of natural and cultural heritage Promotion of heritage and community engagement | Recording and listing Avenues for heritage protection Increasing awareness of Avenues as local heritage |
| Individual or Group | Nature of Stakeholding | Issues of interest and concern |
| Community historical societies 1000 local history organisations with 100 000 members; State and national organisations and peak bodies | Documenting local history including the history of military service Promoting local heritage sites and community interest in history | Connecting Avenues to local history records Ensuring that local history is preserved and accessible Public events to promote interest in local history |
| School educators, Curriculum experts, subject associations and peak bodies. | Educating students about history and the environment | Accessible information to support teaching and learning Opportunities for student activities and participation. |
Participants
The project aims to engage people across Australia as participants in researching, documenting, restoring, creating and celebrating Avenues of Honour in their communities.
Research
The research stage of the project will consolidate information about existing Avenues into a single national database and make it available to people via the wiki website and mobile applications. The project will work in partnership with the Federation of Australian Historical Societies and the Australian Council of National Trusts to engage local history and heritage organisations in the project as on the ground researchers and contributors to the project.
Community engagement
Community engagement activities will happen in collaboration with Local Councils, RSL organisations, Local Historical Societies and National Trust organisations and in conjunction with schools and other community organisations. The project will establish community partnerships around each Avenue and support them with training and information to enable them to record and promote the history and significance of local Avenues.
Marketing and Communication
The project will develop a national marketing and communication strategy to promote the goals and successes of the project through print broadcast media and online through the project blog, social media platforms and e-newsletter. The communication strategy will ensure that local community groups are in touch with each other to promote shared interest and learning across Australia.
Sponsorship and fundraising
The project depends on significant funding being raised through sponsorship and fundraising activities. A sponsorship strategy will be developed to identify suitable sponsors to approach for support. A presentation to potential major sponsors and supporters will be developed for sponsor approaches to be undertaken in the first half of 2013.
The project will also be nominating for funding under Australian Government Anzac Centenary activities.
Education and public programs
The project will develop education resource materials in line with the new Australian Curriculum to support teachers in promoting learning and participation in the Avenues of Honour project within primary and secondary schools. Communities that partner with the program will be able to participate in workshop sessions on promoting participation in the Avenues program.
Conclusion
Through the use of new communications technology, the Avenues of Honour project is now positioned to enter a new phase of public promotion and community engagement. The establishment of the project blog site in 2013, presenting the current data held by TREENET about known Avenues has significantly raised the profile of the project and brought forth new information and a groundswell of public interest and support.
The finalisation of the data standard to inform the future development of a wiki based website and supporting mobile applications means we are also ready to enter the next stage of documentation and promotion of existing Avenues. This will build momentum for restoration and replanting activity and for the creation of new Avenues to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of World War I and the Gallipoli landings.
References
- Lawry, D. 2004. Proceedings of the 5th National Street Tree Symposium, TREENET AVENUES OF HONOUR 2015 PROJECT
- Cockerell, S. 2004. Proceedings of the 5th National Street Tree Symposium, TREENET AVENUES OF HONOUR SURVEY
- Kenyon, B. 2006. Proceedings of the 7th National Street Tree Symposium, DEVELOPMENT OF A STANDARD FOR AVENUES OF HONOUR DATABASE
