The Children: The Plaque: The Story
Know your cemetery and know your town
makes a slogan family history societies keep in mind when answering
questions for those living outside the district.
I began transcribing the Sunbury Cemetery register about 1990. It did not
take long to be horrified by the number of children buried from the
Industrial School, so their names and details were put on a separate list.
When I commenced guiding tours of the cemetery and was frequently queried
about the lack of headstones for the children and other burials from “The
Hill,” I found people had no idea that “State” burials have
always been unmarked – no plaque, no headstone, no memorial of any kind.
It was as if these 71 children had never existed. But they did, and they did
have names , and there were records of their names!
When the Centenary of Federation grants were first announced in 1998,
Sue Sutton and I decided to work for a grant hoping that, if our group were
successful, we could finance a memorial rotunda including a plaque listing
the names of the children. We commenced the lengthy process of
assembling all of the necessary documentation. In this work we had
great assistance from Joan Brogden who did much research on our behalf,
checking death certificates and coroner’s inquests. We applied for the
grant on behalf of the Sunbury Family History Society Inc. to build a
memorial rotunda but, regrettably, we were not successful.
Our
feeling on the result was that, as a small group, we were considered not
likely to have much influence on election results! It’s a pity we
weren’t a sports group! The $29,112 quote for the memorial rotunda was
way beyond
our financial resources! The Society’s wish for a
memorial went into a sort of recess, though every time I have guided
a cemetery tour and mentioned the 71 children buried there, people in
each group have been close to or in tears and have encouraged me to have
another try to establish some kind of memorial.
One
particular day, as I showed the two sites of the four Currie boys’ graves
and, as usual, had to withhold my own tears (those two nearly adjoining
graves always have the same effect), one man asked me to show him the plot
where Cornelius Cooney is buried. Cornelius was his
grandfather’s brother!
The
injustices to our children, as I felt they had become, continued to
rankle, so I went to Tracie Court and Brian Blight, seeing the folder for
the first time, immediately gave his support as President, and our Society
became Plaque Oriented !
On a
second spur of the moment and without an appointment, I took my bulging blue
folder and asked if I could see Liz Beattie. It was a good day!
Our local MP (at the time) saw me, read the folder, enthused, copied the
notes and, within a few days, presented it to the Hon. Christine Campbell
M.P., Minister for Community Services who, on 23rd October 2001, arranged
for a donation of $1000 to be given to us. A cheque for this
amount was presented to us on 16th November 2001, “in recognition of
community spirit.” So, the plaque became feasible. The receipt of 3
generous donations this year allowed us to proceed to its acquisition.
A
number of quotes were obtained for a variety of sizes and styles of plaques,
each enquiry involving a deal of telephoning, corresponding by email, fax or
mail, often requiring second or third attempts. Some
companies have been most helpful – some hopeless!
With
the Society’s approval the Children’s Memorial Committee, Brian Blight, Joe
Gillespie and Elizabeth Wilson placed an order, on 5th July 2004, for the
manufacture of a cast bronze Children’s Memorial Plaque. The
unveiling of this labour of love at the Society’s 20th Anniversary Dinner is
a significant event in the preservation of Sunbury’s unique history.
© Elizabeth Wilson, 2004
The plaque was unveiled at the afore mentioned event on 20th
October, 2004. In June 2005, Hume City Council,
administrators of the Sunbury Cemetery, funded and arranged the mounting of
the plaque on a boulder in the Cemetery which is in course of extension and
refurbishment. The site is in what is planned to be a
garden setting in the proposed Children’s Memorial Walk, one of the main
thoroughfares connecting the new extension of the cemetery to the
established portion where the children’s graves are located.
