Phillip Island’s William Thompson was responsible for the greening of Cowes back in the 1900’s, long before anyone else thought about it.
As well as giving the community Warley Hospital, the Phillip Island community can also thank William Thompson for the beautiful avenue of Golden Cypress which extends the length of Thompson Avenue.
It was planted in stages, at the instigation of William Thompson, and with the help of Cowes Primary school children, beginning as far back as 1912.
Mr Thompson was president of the Phillip Island Progress Association and initially suggested a plan for central plantations in the main street of Cowes, with one way traffic on either side. But a majority decision determined the current layout.
Planting and maintenance, with the help of local school children, and community members, continued in stages starting from the Esplanade, and continued until 1935.
Both sides of the road were completed chiefly as a result of Mr Thompson’s generosity and service to Phillip Island.
The avenue is a mile long, and was one of the finest golden cypress plantations in Australia once fully grown.
What is not as well know is that we can also thank Mr Thompson’s foresight for the magnificent Norfolk Island Pines which stand supreme in Warley Avenue; and for adding to the already treed Cowes foreshore in the 1920’s by planting the palms and pines standing today.
He also planted the trees in Steele Street in Cowes with John Jansson’s grandfather Percy Hutchinson.
And the pines that once surrounded three sides of the Cowes Recreation Reserve were put in at Mr Thompson’s instigation.
He was a driving force behind the establishment of the Cowes Recreation Reserve and football ground, and insisted on both the installation of drainage, and the planting on three sides of a shelter belt of pines for wind protection.
The stand along Chapel Street was removed about 15 years ago when the needles they dropped caused a hazard to players on the tennis courts.
The Dunsmore Road plantings remain in place today, although they are severely disfigured after being cut back in the 1970’s to accommodate power lines; as do the pines along the recreation reserve boundary in Church Street.
The gratitude of the Island people was shown to Mr Thompson and his wife Lucy by the naming of the main street after them in 1937.
