The old gum trees lining Malmsbury-Daylesford Road in Daylesford, Victoria are a stalwart reminder of the challenges and change they have witnessed on this land.
This stretch of road is home to the Manna Gum Avenue Memorial which honours the Dja Dja Wurrung people who lost their lives defending their communities and land in the Frontier Wars.
Local resident and Aboriginal woman Erica Higgins explains that Manna Gum Avenue draws attention to an unspoken part of history. ‘It was the clearing of the land and people, through acts of aggression, sickness and forced removals,’ says Higgins. ‘Trees witness this, it is written on their face.’
First of its kind
Australia is home to multiple avenues of honour, living memorials where trees line major roadways to commemorate and honour those that served in the Second Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, and other wars that followed. There are over 200 in Victoria alone. Manna Gum Avenue is the first to remember Aboriginal peoples who were killed in massacres or by fighting to defend their traditional lands during the Frontier Wars (1788 to mid-1930s).
The sycamore trees of Daylesford’s WWI Avenue of Honour prompted Erica to wonder why the same couldn’t be done to acknowledge the Aboriginal people who lost their lives defending this land during the Frontier Wars.
Erica is a member of the Hepburn Shire Council’s Reconciliation Advisory Committee, which was established the council’s Reconciliation Action Plan(RAP). She raised her idea at a meeting in 2019, proposing the memorial be located on the opposite side of the street from the Daylesford Avenue of Honour, where there were already large Manna Gum trees along a stretch of Malmsbury-Daylesford Road.
The Reconciliation Advisory Committee unanimously decided that the idea for a memorial avenue should be taken to council, and a short brief was prepared to support the idea.
Just because the land is empty does not mean their spirit is not here.
Planting the seeds
Donna Spiller was Hepburn Shire Council’s Reconciliation Officer at the time and played a key role in getting the initiative off the ground. Donna’s role was the result of commitments made in the council’s first RAP in 2018.
Donna reached out to Djaara, the representative body for Dja Dja Wurrung people, on whose Traditional Lands the memorial would be located.
Rodney Carter, Djaara CEO at the time, noted that there were no existing memorials to the Frontier Wars on Dja Dja Wurrung Lands. ‘The memorial would afford greater recognition to our fallen ancestors and help us all heal,’ he said.
Rodney then shared the proposal to establish the Manna Gum Frontier Wars Memorial with Djaara members and the board, who were supportive of the project.
Truth blooms
With the support of both the Hepburn Shire Council and Djaara, the project moved ahead. After some delays due to pandemic restrictions, Manna Gum Avenue was unveiled during NAIDOC Week 2021 at a ceremony attended by local Traditional Owners, Aboriginal people, the Hepburn Shire Mayor and other councillors and staff. Hepburn Shire Council won Reconciliation Victoria’s Maggolee Reconciliation Award in 2023 for the project.
Manna Gum Avenue serves as a reminder of the enduring strength and spirit of those who sacrificed their lives for their land. ‘It wasn’t people who voluntarily disappeared, it was people who fought to obtain their rights, and they died,’ explains Erica.
She calls the gums ‘witness trees’ because they endure and witness changes over time, making them a powerful symbol of the Aboriginal people who fought and cared for the land. ‘Just because the land is empty does not mean their spirit is not here.’
