Friday 16 July 2010

Progress for the old cemetery

Earlier this week, more progress was made toward the heritage kiosk that is to be erected at the old Otautau Cemetery. The kiosk was originally going to be built by the Otautau Lions Club, however, the devil is in the details. So some of the SDC staff who are also working on the project held an informal meeting at the Otautau Hotel. They presented 3 copies of an oversized wall printout of a list of people buried in the old cemetery (pictured above). They asked participants to help with identifying errors or ways to improve the banner.

Part of the confusion is that there is an overlapse of time when both cemeteries (the old and the new) were opened and in use. The old cemetery opened 4 June 1879 and closed in 1947. The new cemetery opened in 1914. So for 30 years, there was lots of room for clerical error.

The staff hope to have the list finalised and ready to go up in August. At the close of the meeting, one of the staff offered one of the printouts to the Otautau Museum. We have it on display in the big room if anyone would like to see it. There is also a copy on display at the SDC office.

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