Havelock's Avenue of Honour
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The two newspaper reports are at variance. The Avoca Mail of 29th June 1900 states there were about 40 trees. The Maryborough & Dunolly Advertiser of 25th June 1900 states there were about 50 trees. Both agree that the avenue went from the school to the railway station.
The spacing of the trees are generally 18 to 21 m. This suggests a plan to space them one chain (20.1 m) apart. However, the volunteers probably guessed this.
The trees appear to have been planted a set distance back from the road rather than from the edge of the road reserve. Near Hells Bend both rows of trees do a slight bend to the west. This means the road did a slight bend before going over the hill. When the cutting was put in the road would have been straightened.
The Avenue starts at the site of the Havelock State School and goes north along the Maryborough Dunolly Rd for 240 m then turns east and follows the old Bendigo Rd for a further 120 m to the site of the Havelock Railway Station.
The newspaper states the first tree was at the school fence on the Maryborough side and that the second tree was on the opposite side of the road. As such we have numbered the trees all the way to the railway line. The known spacing makes it easy to count how many trees are in the spaces. This gives an original planting of 42 trees.
We have 27 original trees, 2 standing dead trees, 3 replacement trees (probably 1920s), 3 possible replacement trees and 13 trees missing.
The names of the first 14 trees are stated with confidence that they are in correct order. Those beyond that are from a list that may not be in order. The names of the last 13 trees are unknown.
All trees were planted on 21st June 1900.
