The Swan Hill Woodworking Group have been charged with the important task of constructing 50 white crosses that will be used by the Swan Hill Cemetery Trust as a token of remembrance for unmarked graves.
The secretary of the Swan Hill Cemetery Trust, Janette Vallance, said the cemetery is undergoing work in the area where there are known unmarked graves.
Currently, around 20 unmarked graves exist but more could be located as work progresses.
“Through our work we will laser grade to level grounds and we anticipate that we may locate more unmarked graves that have existed before records were kept for the cemetery,” she said.
Rudimentary records for the cemetery started being kept around 1859. The unmarked graves date prior to this and there is very little known about their history or who the graves belong to.
“The graves would have been dug by hand back in the 1800’s and we are not certain how many there are,” Ms Vallance said.
“We may find more as we complete works,” Ms Vallance said.
The works are being completed to open up a new area of the cemetery and every effort is being made to avoid disturbing the unmarked graves.
“We plan to stay clear of where we know the unmarked graves are located and we will take the opportunity to place a cross at each unmarked grave we discover.”
For more on this story, grab a copy of Thursday’s Guardian (December 24).
