THE new Holbrook bypass will have two Anzac Groves — one at each end.
Greater Hume Council has backed the idea of eucalyptus mannifera at the Wagga Road interchange and at the southern interchanges on the Albury side.
The groves will be about six kilometres apart.
NSW Roads and Maritime Services supports the idea and will erect signs for the “Anzac Grove North Interchange” and “Anzac Grove South Interchange”.
Although the bypass is scheduled to open by the middle of the year, the groves will mark the Centenary of Anzac 2015.
There had been a proposal for an avenue of honour of the trees — a white-barked native selected by Holbrook Landcare — to run the 9.5 kilometre of the bypass.
But landscape designers advised that plantations of trees along the highway would not be as distinctive as contemplated because of the raised sections of the bypass and the sight restrictions that will be created by noise walls.
The council and Landcare representatives have agreed to the change and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs will allow the council to use the word “Anzac”.
Holbrook was renamed from Germantown in 1915 while the Gallopoli campaign was continuing.
Its name honours submarine commander Norman Holbrook, whose exploits in the Dardanelles in December 1914 earned him a Victoria Cross.
Sydney already has a Light Horse Interchange on the M4 and M7 Freeways, while Wodonga has an Anzac Parade on the Murray Valley Highway at Bandiana.
