A project to identify the unmarked graves of WWI soldiers and to erect headstones is “nation leading”, Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove says.
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The Headstone Project aims to ensure all of the state’s WWI veterans have their final resting place marked in a way that recognises their service to Australia.
Sir Peter and Lady Lynne Cosgrove visited Launceston’s Carr Villa Memorial Park on Monday to view the project’s progress.
“As a soldier, you look at what the community is doing all this time after the event. It makes you quietly proud to be an Aussie,” he said.
Sir Peter visited the grave of Bertram Voss, and spoke with Mr Voss’ family and job active participants working on the headstone.
He also visited the graves belonging to James Henry Paul Maynard and Claude Eyre Brown, who both served with the 12th Battalion and were Tasmanian Aboriginal servicemen from Cape Barren Island.
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The graves of Angus Campbell, Fred Collinson, and William Correa were also visited.
The Headstone Project meant that no veterans would be “written off”, Sir Peter said.
“We’ve got some Indigenous men here, and we know the Indigenous Australians were not to serve,” he said.
“At very last a number of them snuck their way into the military, took themselves off to war, came back, and their lives lapsed back into what the protocols of treatment were before.
“That’s part of our burden, and part of our debt.”
Sir Peter said the job seekers participating in the project were doing important work.
“When you see people doing this on the ground, you think, ‘well that’s a very useful thing to do’,” he said.
“We’re a nation that moves at a thousand miles and hour. We’re one of the richest nations in the world, we have a brilliant population, a very diverse population.
“What you always seek in such pacey, modern life is the unifying principles.
“And, one of them is a sense of community.”
Sir Peter said Australian communities rally around each other in times of need, such as during the recent Tasmanian bushfires.
“Everybody is reminded that you do rely on the person next door, the neighbourhood, the village, the town, the city,” he said.
Sir Peter said it was a big undertaking to restore each gravestone.
“It’s a labour of love, but it is a big project,” he said.
“You do it one headstone at a time.”
The Headstone Project vice-chairman Marcus Allen said an estimated 700 to 800 WWI veterans were in unmarked graves around the state.
“We unveiled the last headstone at Cornelian Bay [near Hobart] about five weeks ago, so that marked the first major milestone,” he said.
“That’s 300-odd returned servicemen who were previously in unmarked graves, now remembered.”
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Mr Allen said there were about 70 graves to work on at Carr Villa. After their competition, the project would then move into smaller cemeteries throughout the state.
“Our challenge right now is how to deal with the fact that this is a national issue,” he said.
Sir Peter is in the final few months of his role, with David Hurley to officially become the the country’s 27th Governor General in June.
While in Launceston, Sir Peter visited Launceston Church Grammar School, where he toured the school’s innovative inquiry centre.
Headmaster Richard Ford said it was a great honour.
“Sir Peter Cosgrove is undoubtedly one of Australia’s great learners and leaders,” he said.
While in Launceston Sir Peter also met with City of Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten, and personally congratulated a group of Northern Tasmanians who were awarded medals within the Order of Australia.
- For more information about The Headstone Project, visit theheadstoneproject.org or the project’s Facebook page.