The seeds of war produce new life

Dallas Carroll accompanied grandfather Mick Howard on trips to water seedlings descended from The Lone Pine tree at Gallipoli.

The landmark WWI memorial tree on Te Mata Peak was always "Poppa's tree", according to Dallas Carroll.

Her grandfather, Mick Howard, a Gallipoli veteran, planted a seedling on Te Mata Peak from a pine cone an Australian Gallipoli veteran gave him.

Mr Howard received the two cones from Jack Marshall, after the two veterans struck up a friendship on a Wellington tram in 1949.

Frederick Stanley "Mick" Carroll, second from left, is pictured with fellow WWI Ruahine Regiment soldiers. Photo / Supplied

Mr Marshall sourced the cone from a tree at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance, itself sourced from the Lone Pine Ridge tree at Gallipoli.

The Lone Pine dominated a plateau where in 1915 the Anzacs fought one of the most desperate battles of the Gallipoli campaign.

The Te Mata Park seedling was one of six propagated by council parks superintendent Mr JG Mackenzie, who germinated the seeds in a kitchen oven.

Seedlings were planted at the Park Island Cemetery, Taradale's Lone Pine Cemetery, Napier Lawn Cemetery, New Plymouth, Christchurch and Te Mata Park.

Te Mata Park Trust chairman Bruno Chambers said the park seedling later died.

"A couple of years after it was planted the possums or sheep ate the original," he said.

"We laboured under the impression for many years that it was a pinus brutia, when in fact it is a pinus radiata."

Park volunteer Michael Lusk planted a replacement tree beside the current landmark two years ago, ready to replace the larger pine as it declines with age.

It was donated to the RSA by Scion in Rotorua, from seeds collected from a pinus brutia growing on Paeroa golf course, grown from a seed sourced from the Melbourne Botanic Garden which was descended from a Lone Pine Ridge tree.

War memorials using trees were more common in Australia, Mr Lusk said. "Just about every little town has some sort of tree memorial to soldiers."

Mrs Carroll was surprised to hear the Te Mata tree was not her grandfather's. She accompanied him on summer watering trips for many years.

"It doesn't matter though - it is the significance that counts," she said.