Eight trees were planted at the park on Lewis Street in the first stage of an ambitious new project for the town to develop a “Longford Legends Recognition Program” park.

All up, 20 pupils from Longford Primary School helped plant the semi-mature Chinese Elm trees under blue skies on Friday morning.

Longford Local District Committee chair Neil Tubb said that he was thrilled to see the involvement of more young people in the future of the town.

“The kids were fantastic.

“They got involved with their shovels, then they were helping to get the posts in the ground.”

The second stage of the project will utilise signage and smartphone technology to tell local stories.

Mr Tubb hopes to see see younger residents get involved in the second stage of the project too, researching and learning about significant members of the community in the process.

Megan Denne, a member of The CommuniTree Project, brought the initial idea for the project forward.

It was then that the project was picked up by Mr Tubb from the Longford Local District Committee and Rotary Club.

The idea behind CommuniTree is a social inclusion project that uses technology to tell the stories of people within local communities through walking trails or planting sites.

Mr Tubb said there were plenty of people around Longford deserving of the recognition.

‘We have a lot of exports that come from Longford, and a lot of citizens that contribute a lot,” Mr Tubb said.

He added it didn’t need to be people who had gone onto larger state and national recognition either.

“It’s the unspoken heroes.”

Mr Tubb said he hoped to see the second stage begin in early 2019, with council approval still needed.

Northern Midlands mayor David Downie thanked the Longford Rotary Club, Primary School and CommuniTree for their work getting the project underway.

Northern Midlands councillor Dick Adams said it was a great effort to be able to pull all three groups together to create something for the future. 

“It’s shaping up to be growing well.”

Another of CommuniTree’s aims are to improve the aesthetics of an area by increasing vegetation while delivering an attraction of minimal cost for councils to maintain .

The planting of trees was an added bonus for Mr Tubb and Cr Adams with both the Rotary club and Northern Midlands Council having existing tree-planting projects in place.

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