Today we hunted for graves connected to Timaru's shipwreck history. Captains, Boatmen, people whose livelihoods needed successful way to export and import, mayor's, harbour board members, grain merchants, sheep station owners, meat exporters, first to export flour in Timaru, and the wives arriving to a new colony...
I imagine the day when 5000 sacks of locally produced grain were on board the City of Perth, in danger of smashing into the Benvenue wreck, and what it must have felt like to be on the cliff above, watching your communities hard work to break in the farms and produce the grain... and to see it under threat... fortunately the grain was salvaged and able to be sold.
How many more wrecks would the insurers pay out on before the Timaru Harbour was too high risk to insure vessels and cargo.
The first person to be buried at the Timaru Cemetery was a boatman from Deal on his way to save a ship in trouble. So many lost their lives so close to our shore.
I often wonder what Timaru would be like if it didn't have a Port. And how the efforts if those back in the day to make it happen and be a success helped make our region a feasible place to live, and thrive.
Check out the Timaru Trails Cemetery Trail to learn about Timaru-vians who rest here.
There's an area that looks like there could be graves, but no markings, I wonder if these are the "pauper graves"?
Photo by Roselyn Fauth