PLANTED: Students Brendan Boyd and Gemma O’Brien, Councillor David Dwyer and Vietnam veteran Pat Ringold plant the seedling taken from the original Lone Pine at Gallipoli during WWI.

Photo: Graham Davis

By Graham Davis

For the past eight months Vietnam veteran Pat Ringold has been nurturing a very special seedling. Kept in the backyard of his Brisbane home he has made sure it was watered and kept clear of predators. Ringold obtained the seedling from a nursery in Canberra.

It is special because it is an offspring of the Lone Pine of Gallipoli. Ringold sought the seedling with the aim of seeing it grow in a special war memorial park at Kallangur a north-western suburb of Brisbane.

On July 10, Ringold, with the help of Councillor David Dwyer of the Pine Rivers Shire Council and the captains of the nearby Dakabin State High School, Brendan Boyd and Gemma O’Brien, planted the seedling in a garden at the edge of Carruthers Park, a reserve destined to eventually be dotted with remembrance plaques to those who have served and died in the service of Australia.

The pine tree was to remember those of the past and to those of the future.

The planting of the tree was the finale to the earlier dedication and unveiling of a new memorial to those sailors who were lost at sea and today have just a “rusting hulk” as their resting place.

The “rusting hulk” memorial depicts the forward section of a warship. More than 100 people attended the dual function.

The memorial is the culmination of work by the Pine Rivers Naval Association Sub-Section and the Pine Rivers Shire Council.

Pat Ringold served in Vietnam as a leading seaman in HMAS Vampire.

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