The idea soon took hold and a correspondent with the pen name of Roman Roads wrote a letter to The Argus suggesting that we could plant it with a double row of olive trees, symbolic of both the scene of our brave fellows' deeds, and of the "olive leaf" that these deeds will have helped to hold out to an outraged world. This tree is proof against every adversity, and shady and pleasing to the eye. Such a mammoth avenue of them would grow to yield £1,000,000 a year (3).
The Anzac Highway concept was also taken up by the Road Users' Association. This group had been around for well over a decade, starting as the National Touring Association. In 1905 it changed its name to the Touring and Good Roads Association (4) and in January 1917, the name changed again, this time to the Road Users' Association (5). The original purpose of the Group, as the name suggests was a touring association and one of the members was George Broadbent. Mr Broadbent (1863-1947) was a keen cyclist who held many Australian and Victorian records, including that of riding 203 miles (327 km) in 24 hours on a penny farthing - apparently that record has never been beaten, so if you are up for a challenge (and happen to have a penny farthing bicycle handy), then give it a go. George began producing maps initially for cyclists but later for other road users and formed the company, Broadbents Official Road Guides (6).
The Secretary of the Road Users' Association was Eric Boult and he wrote an article, published in the Truth newspaper about the Anzac Highway. The idea that the road should be a monument to fallen soldiers was expanded upon. As well, Mr Boult compared the Anzac Highway to the Roman Roads in Britain - now, these Roman roads have lasted because they were well built-far better built than those of our Country Roads Board and it is probably desirable that this highway, if built, should be constructed up to as high a standard as possible, with a view to making it thoroughly permanent (7).
The road would also have a number of other benefits - it could be built entirely by returned soldiers from labourers to engineers. It would also provide ongoing employment as returned soldiers could be employed as patrol men along the route. The road would open up land for settlement and thus would permit very large numbers of returned soldiers being settled on the land. The road would also be of military value and would aid in the defence of the country as well as being of benefit to motorists generally (8).
There were also various suggestions that plaques and memorials to fallen soldiers would be erected along the length of the road and that members of the public or communities could donate money to have, for instance, a bridge built to honor a fallen soldier (9). Each state would be responsible for their section and could incorporate existing roads into the project or make new roads. The proposed road was compared to the Lincoln Memorial Highway which was being built across the United States (10).
In early May the Road Users' Association formed a committee to provisionally formulate a scheme to give effect to the proposition (11). Amongt those on this committee were William Edgar, President of the Association (12). Mr Edgar was the former Minister for Public Works (13). Also on the committee was Carlo Catani, the recently retired Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department. A report of his retirement function in Table Talk quotes Mr Edgar as saying Mr. Catani would in future bear the honor due for the work of the proposed Anzac memorial highway to link up the Australian States. It was at his suggestion that this scheme has been put before the public, and it has a very worthy object in its proposed employment of returned soldiers (14). The first job of this new Committee was to obtain the co-operation of kindred groups in other States or if none existed, the automobile club (15).
This was a very grand scheme but in the end it was only partially successful as there is no Anzac Highway which links Brisbane to Perth. There is an Anzac Highway in South Australia which runs from Adelaide to Glenelg. As early as August 1917 the proposal was made to widen this road, which was called Bay Road, with the addition of a tram track down the centre along with memorials to soldiers, resurface it and add landscaping and rename it the Anzac Highway (16). From reports in the newspapers it seems to have been referred to as the Anzac Highway from the early 1920s, but the name was officially changed in November 1924 (17). In 1925, there were plans to plant the entire length of the Highway with Norfolk Island Palms. Sir Sidney Kidman, the pastoralist, donated £250 towards the project and Adelaide Register reported that to plant the tree and erect guards costs £2 2/ each tree, and it has been decided by the Treeplanting Advisory Board that a contribution of that amount would carry with it the privilege of having a tree dedicated to the memory of any fallen soldier and a tablet placed on the guard (18).
The Adelaide Chronicle wrote One cannot imagine a more fitting memorial than the living evergreen tree typifying as it does, the ever-present memory of our glorious dead, their heroic achievements, and their final sacrifice that we might be free. Many of them came from the country, and loved the flowers and trees, and would not have hesitated to select a living tree as their monument (19).
Anzac Highway / Bay Road, in South Australia, flooded. 1926.
State Library of South Australia Image B 28557
We did have an Anzac Highway in Victoria, it is now known as the Great Ocean Road. The road from Barwon Heads to Warrnambool was proposed in December 1917 by Cr Howard Hitchcock (20), Mayor of Geelong as a memorial to the fallen soldiers (21). Early the next year, Cr Hitchcock, Mr. Fricke, of the Country Roads Board and Mr Edgar, the Road Users' Association President and others toured the area and were impressed. Mr Edgar had this to say the scenery was one magnificent panorama of ocean views, rugged coast line, and undulating forest country. The country is second to none in Victoria as a tourists' resort. The vegetation is luxuriant (22). The Road Users' Association appointed Mr C. Catani to represent us in any action which may be taken (23). Early reports in the press referred to the road as a part of the Anzac Memorial Highway, but the Trust that was established on March 22, 1918 to oversee the project was called the Great Ocean Road Trust, so that appears to be the favoured name from the start (24).
Sadly, Carlo passed away only a few months later on July 20, 1918 so he played little role in the development of the Great Ocean Road, even though he was a committee member of the Trust (25). It was Cr Hitchcock who oversaw the project as the President of the Great Ocean Road Trust and generous benefactor towards the project. Cr Hitchcock passed away August 22, 1932 (on the day that the Catani Memorial Clock Tower was officially dedicated) just three months before the roadway was officially opened on November the 26th by Sir William Irvine, the Lieutenant Governor of Victoria. Sir William paid tribute to Cr Hitchcock -
Before proceeding to the task which I am here to perform, I must express my profound regret that he to whose energy and devotion the completion of this Ocean road is mainly due has been called away on the eve of the consummation of his life's ambition. But no nobler monument could be erected to the memory of the late Mr. Howard Hitchcock than that which his own enthusiasm has taken such a large part in creating, and which will always be associated with his name (26).
The Great Ocean Road, near Lorne.
This great image gives a good idea idea of the obstacles faced in the construction of the road.
Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. State Library of Victoria Image H90.160/82
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Acknowledgement: I found out about Carlo Catani's connection to the Anzac Highway and the Great Ocean Road, from my research colleague, Isaac Hermann. Thanks, Isaac!
Trove List - I have created a list of articles connected to the Anzac Highway, Carlo Catani's involvement and various other things I have written about in this post, access it here.
Notes
(1) Horace Washington Harrison was the secretary of the Victorian Chamber of Automotive Industries, which he founded around 1912 and the editor and founder of the Australian Motorist. According to his obituary, in 1950 he held the oldest driving licence in Victoria. Mr Harrison died in 1952, aged 73. His obituary was in the Herald, August 13, 1952, see here.
(2) Reported in The Argus February 12, 1917, see here.
(3) The Argus February 15, 1917, see here.
(4) Table Talk, February 16, 1905, see here.
(5) Geelong Advertiser, January 25, 1917, see here.
(6) Information about George Broadbent comes from his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry by G.F. James, read it here.
(7) Truth, March 3, 1917, see here.
(8) Truth, March 3, 1917, see here.
(9) Geelong Advertiser May 9, 1917, see here.
(10) Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, March 2, 1917, see here.
(11) The Argus May 5, 1917, see here.
(12) Mr Edgar took over as President in March 1917 - The Herald, March 12, 1917 see here.
(13) William Haslam Edgar (1858-1948) - member of the Legislative Council from 1904 to 1913 and from 1917 until 1948. Source: Parliament of Victoria Remember database, see here.
(14) Table Talk May 17, 1917, see here.
(15) The Argus May 5, 1917, see here.
(16) The Adelaide Advertiser August 8, 1917, see here. I initially found out about the connection about the Anzac Highway originally being called Bay Road from a document on the Australian Garden History Society website. The document is on Avenues of Honour, see it here.
(17) The Adelaide Advertiser November 7, 1924, see here.
(18) The Adelaide Register, October 26, 1925, see here.
(19) The Adelaide Chronicle, October 31, 1925, see here.
(20) Howard Hitchcock (1866 - 1932) You can read about his life here, in his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, written by Ian Wynd, here. I initially found the connection between Cr Hitchcock and the Great Ocean Road in the Victorian Heritage Database citation, see here.
(21) The Argus December 4, 1917, see here.
(22) The Herald February 18, 1918, see here.
(23) The Herald February 18, 1918, see here.
(24) The report of the formation of the Great Ocean Road Trust can be read in the Colac Reformer of March 23, 1918, see here. References to the Great Ocean Road as part of the Anzac Memorial Highway can be found in the Herald of March 22, 1919 (see here) where they are discussing the screening of a new film of the Great Ocean Road, which was a comprehensive pictorial presentment of the route the proposed Anzac memorial highway will follow. George Broadbent wrote an article called The Great Ocean Road: Inception and Development and writes inter alia that it is further intended that the Great Ocean road shall be an Anzac memorial highway. It's a very informative article with photographs and a map, read it in The Argus of April 29, 1922, here.
(25) Colac Reformer March 23, 1918, see here. The Committee of the Great Ocean Road Trust, as listed in the Colac Reformer were President, Cr Hitchcock, Mayor of Geelong; Vice-presidents, Cr Swinton, Warrnambool; Hon. A. Bell, M.L.C. Ballarat ; Messrs J. D. Deaney, Jas. M'Donald, Robt. Purnell, Duncan M'Lennan, M's.L.A. Committee - Cr J. Hancock, Colac; Hon. W. H. Edgar, M.L.C.; Mr P. H. Lock; Hon. T. Livingston, M.L.C.; Mr G. Broadbent, Cr W. Fletcher, Messrs W. B. Volum, John Pettit, C. Catani, Ed. Black, J. M'Phillimy, J. T. Anderson (Lorne), G. F. Sydenham, G. S. Mackay (Warrnambool), A. K. Stanford (Apollo Bay). Treasurer - Union Trustee Company of Australia. Organising secretary, Mr E. E. Hendy
(26) The Argus November 28, 1932, see here.
