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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

The Australian Government acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and acknowledges their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the Elders past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website may contain images, voices and names of deceased persons.

Marking unmarked graves in the Western Tablelands

Jobs, Land and Economy
A brown cross sits on a grave. It includes the name and photo of the deceased.

By manufacturing crosses for unmarked graves in the Western Tablelands of North Queensland, the TRACQS CDP team have helped families to honour their loved ones who have passed.

Since June 2021, the TRACQS CDP team based in the Western Tablelands of Queensland have been making caskets free of charge to support families who have lost a loved one.

Before that, they used their skills in the production of grave crosses and headstones to provide another important service to the local communities.

Activities Manager Lance Starr explains why.

‘Within our Chillagoe CDP team is a cohort of Indigenous participants. A couple of years ago, they brought it to my attention that there were 3 Indigenous gravesites in Chillagoe without gravestones. They approached me and asked would it be possible for TRACQS to assist and pay for and manufacture the grave covers and the headstones.’

‘Straight away I said “Of course, we can do that”.’

‘But then it was a process of going through council and getting council to go there and the gravesites had to be pegged and marked and taped and everything.’

‘After that process with council, we moved in and applied the covers and headstones.’

‘Also, there is an Indigenous community called Mona Mona about 40 minutes from Kuranda and that has a graveyard there. It used to be an old mission.’

‘They didn’t put crosses or anything on each grave, just a tiny square piece of timber at the end.’

‘Well, a fire went through there and took out all the markings so James Cook University brought in anthropologists to mark out and put names to graves.’

‘At the time, many of the people didn’t have the funding to put down a cross or headstone and so the graves went unmarked. This remained the case over time.’

‘So we thought, let’s make the crosses with the name of the deceased on it, a picture, the date of birth and death and that’s what we mark them with now.’

The Community Development Program supports job seekers to build skills and address barriers to employment and contribute to their community.

Sometimes activities run through CDP have a larger impact than its creators imagined.

In the case of the TRACQS CDP team, their work is easing the burden and therefore the pain of losing a family member and secondly, reconnecting families to those who, in a sense, were lost to them.

Be sure to read part 1 of this series called, Easing the financial stress of losing a loved one.

Find out more

The National Indigenous Australians Agency funds TRACQS through the Community Development Program (CDP) to support jobseekers with employment, to build their skills and contribute to their community.

TRACQS is a leading CDP provider that delivers quality pre and post-employment and training services to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians across the Western Tablelands of Far North Queensland.’