Pambula and District Avenue of Honour

The Pambula and District Avenue of Honour was planted in the 1920s to honour the servicemen from this district who served in the First World War (including in France and at Gallipoli) and did not return.

The trees are Casuarina Cunninghamiana (River She-oak). Initially, 25 trees were planted representing the 25 young men from the Pambula area who made the supreme sacrifice. The choice to use a native species makes this Avenue of Honour exceptional and significant, as many other memorial avenues were created with exotic species such as Poplars. Times were very tough during the depression years after the war and it is likely these native trees were readily available and not too expensive. It was a wise decision on the organiser’s part as all bar one have survived for over 100 years.

Many locals have enjoyed sharing their memories of the Avenue:

Barbara Fulton nee Hart (lives in Eden) who was born in 1929 and lived at Lochiel, can always remember those trees being there and from the time her memory begins she recalls that they were always big trees. She used to ride her horse to school at Pambula from Lochiel and she said during windy weather she found it really spooky and unsettling to ride past them, as the wind would howl through the branches. She knew that the avenue of trees had been planted in memory of the local boys who had died overseas and hadn’t returned home from WW1.

Pambula was one of the last towns in what is now the Bega Valley Shire to actually build a ‘bricks and mortar’ war memorial. Discussions along these lines commenced in 1925 but it took 11 years before a memorial was finally unveiled in Pambula’s main street. To have had the memorial Avenue of Honour representing the 25 men from the local district of Pambula, Merimbula, Greig’s Flat, Lochiel, Millingandi, Nethercote, Pipeclay Creek and Rocky Hall who had made the supreme sacrifice, was extremely important during the absence of a memorial in the village.

Pambula Wetlands and Heritage Project volunteers now care for the area around the trees by regularly mowing and clearing debris and weeds. In 2023 the Avenue of Honour was listed on the NSW War Memorial Register.