Multiple musicians and community musical groups will be performing at the Commercial Hotel in Kingston as part of this Saturday’s global Play Music on The Porch Day.   

A world-wide event, every year musicians in more than 70 countries and more than 1000 cities across the globe participate, and are encouraged to register their location at Play Music on The Porch Day – A worldwide celebration of peace and music.

The Commercial Hotel (pictured above) will once again host a wide variety of live musical performances starting at noon and running through to 4pm on August 31.

Musos lining up to help give the local pub’s “porch” a good shaking include Creswick Drum Circle, Skedaddle featuring banjo, guitar and fiddle, Bec Matthews and Jamie featuring kora, guitar and banjo, The Roundabout Folk Band, Hands On Drum Group, Stella Savy with her guitar, plus Ballarat’s Thursday Night Choir and the Creswick Chorus.

All are invited to get along and catch the live music at the Kingston pub, but to participate in Play Music on The Porch Day all anyone need do is get outside and make music.

Participants are invited to also share a video of themselves making music on the day on social media using the hashtag #playmusicontheporchday.    

Just in time to catch the first stirrings of spring, a very special tree planting  took place in the famed Avenue of Honour at Kingston on Saturday, August  10.

The newly grafted elm that was planted on Saturday replaces a mature elm that  had reached the end of its life and, on arborist’s advice, had been removed with a new  hole dug for its successor.

The original elm tree – and now its new replacement – honour and remember  one Clarence Albert Norman, a former young Newlyn blacksmith who served in both  World War I and World War II.

Descendant members of Mr Norman’s family travelled from far and wide for  Saturday’s special replacement planting organised by the Friends of Kingston Avenue  in partnership with the Hepburn Shire Council.  

“Clarence Albert Norman was born in 1893 and he was a blacksmith in Newlyn,  married, who at 21 years of age enlisted on the fifteenth of July in 1915,” says Claire  Rowlands, vice president of the Friends.  

“Clarence Norman’s name is on the Newlyn Primary School Honour Roll.  Clarence was discharged from the army on the fifth of April in 1919. He later served  in the Second World War, and he died at the age of 68 in 1961.”  

The former Shire of Creswick Avenue in Kingston was heritage listed in 2015 and  has become a much-admired feature of the local landscape.  

“It’s one of the most significant Avenues in Victoria,” Claire says.  

If Clarence was looking down on Saturday’s tree planting he would have seen  his family represented by his three grandsons, three of his four granddaughters, and  other family members all proudly thinking of him.  

The day was also significant as, being August 10, it was the very same day that  way back in 1918 the local community came together to plant the original 225  Avenue trees to commemorate WWI men and women associated with the former  Shire of Creswick.  

And then in 1919, an additional 61 trees were planted on August 9, making a  total of 286 trees in the historic Avenue.  

Kingston Friends of the Avenue president Julie Baulch says the new young elm  was planted with the assistance of a state government Restoring Community War  Memorials and Avenues of Honour grant.

It was also planted with an application of  beneficial microbial inoculants.

 “Eight other trees have also been removed, having reached their usual life  expectancy, and will also be replaced in the near future as part of our Tree  Management Plan,” Claire says.  

A tree to honour Clarence at Kingston Ave  With these additional replacement plantings planned ahead, the Friends are now  seeking family connected to the other eight trees.

They are family of: L.E. Coulson,  F.F. Crisp, S. McGard, C.J. Finlayson, W. McPherson, E.E. Owens, C.R. Toll and  R.W. Waddington.  

Families of the above listed soldiers honoured in the Avenue are being invited to  contact kfoa gmail.com  

Words: Eve Lamb