Harden Shire Council and the Wombat Progress Association have taken it upon themselves the special task of naming those whose burial sites are unknown at Wombat Cemetery.
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And thanks to the dedicated volunteers at the Young and District Family History Group who researched and compiled the names, this became a reality on Saturday, May 16.
The small village held an unveiling ceremony at 11am of a memorial wall built at the Wombat Cemetery containing four large plaques listing the names of the people buried there but whose burial sites were unknown.
The plaques display the names of 170 people of Anglican (49), Presbyterian (7), Catholic (19), Wesleyan (4) and unknown (91) denominations.
“Their full names are known, as is their date of death and their at the time of death,” Wombat Progress Association secretary Joanne Norris said.
The ceremony was conducted by Harden mayor John Horton and featured several speeches, including that of Neil Barry and Wombat Progress Association president John Daley.
A morning tea in the Wombat Soldiers Memorial Hall in Rose Street followed.
The village of Wombat is a direct result of the Lambing Flat Riots.
Following is a speech by Mr Barry and Mr Daley given during the ceremony:
“The area that we call Wombat today was gazetted a village in 1861 and it was called “Wambat” - when or why it was changed to Wombat is not quite clear.
“The village grew quickly, a post office was opened in 1862, the school was opened in 1867, the Anglican church was built in 1873, the Catholic church in 1875 and the hotel was licensed in 1877 - all this in less than 100 years from the first settlement in Sydney Cove.
“The date of the dedication of this area as the cemetery is not known but we do know that it was in use from 1861, the first marked burial took place in May 1881 when Robert Chamblin was interned.
“The Wombat Progress took the view that all these names should be displayed for future generations to see and Harden Shire Council was happy to encourage such an endeavour.
“The Harden Shire and Wombat Progress Association would very much like to thank the Young and District Family History Group for compiling all the information concerning our local cemeteries, it was a long job but a job well done.”
