The ABC is reporting that the Lone Pine at the Australian War Memorial has been “split in two” by a lightning strike. The Lone Pine was planted in 1934 as a pine cone originating from foliage used as cover by the Turkish forces at Gallipoli. It stands on the North-Eastern side of Limestone Avenue as you approach the War Memorial and has long been a valued exhibit at the War Memorial. The ABC is reporting that tree surgeons will be on-site tomorrow in an effort to save the tree.
Any photos out there?
It was certainly a very active storm yesterday afternoon, with some very loud thunder claps here in O’Connor. Might go and check it out…
I saw it twice today and took some friends out to the memorial today.
Didn’t think about which tree it was until now!
Sorry I didn’t get any photos, thought about it, but kept driving.
A picture is up on the ABC site now…
link:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/28/2455687.htm
oops – just noticed its linked from the article… Blame xmas drinks…
That’s one big pine tree. Even what is left is still massive. A selection of pics can be seen by following the links below:
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-01.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-02.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-03.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-04.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-05.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-06.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-07.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-08.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-09.jpg
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh177/Holden-Caulfield/AWM-Lone-Pine-10.jpg
It was 2 very surprising storms. the second didn’t look as fierce as teh first on radar but it was a whopper! I measured a gust of 80.6 km/hr. The lightning seemed to camp over my range for ages and it flashed and banged all around. I ended up sitting in a centre room with no windows, having unplugged everything first.
I imagine the tree was stressed from the long dry, many (most, all?) are. Wind has done terrible damage to many healthy-looking trees due to stress.
ant, good to see you took complete precautions. I sat out and watched the 2 storms approach. I then tried to batten down all loose items, get the washing in, placate my very scared children. we ended up camping in the hallway on a lilo – there are no windows and the doors are solid numbers. the lightning wasn’t the problem for me, it was the rain. it was a foot deep in the backyard, and I had to check the tiles to make sure none had gone.
was almost the same as christmas eve ‘74…
I was driving from Fyshwick to Woden via Hindmarsh Dr during it. The rain was persisting down. At one stage I almost had to pull over and stop. Can’t understand why there were two separate storms like that within a few hours of each other. Very strange.
peter@home said :
Winds where a little slower in Saturdays storm (by nearly 200km/h). It was still a good one, I was out in Murrumbateman for the second one, and you could just see how violent the storm was going to be, even 15 minutes before it hit us, it was not much fun to drive through.
Back to the ‘Lone Pine’ tree… I was just at the AWM with my kids. The arborists seem to have been out and the branch that came away has now been cut up into logs. The tree itself has been cordoned off and it looks to be OK otherwise.
The storms were absolute crackers. I was out in the second one bailing water away from the door of one of my sheds. Water was already entering the shed (about 4 inches off the ground) by the time I got to it. A few books etc. that were in storage were ruined but it was quite a fun little job to do. Worst thing is that the storm also washed some gravel etc. into the street, which I now have to clean up.
BerraBoy68 said :
haven’t you done that yet? is it white or brown gravel?
harvyk1 said :
I meant the camping in the hallway, however I was under the stairs in ‘74…
and the house came through fairly intact. did sway afterwards in a strong breeze, but we learned to live with it…
these storms that we saw come through recently were amazing. the roof gutters couldn’t handle the volumes, and my retaining wall became a dam in the backyard. too much rain for good lightning pics.
I was in a cyclone in Townsville in about 74. The scenery afterwards was quite spectacular.
And when the storm hit I was on a roof doing some emergency repairs with SES. I got very, very wet