The Department of Justice has said prisoners from the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison (EGRP) were helping to restore and protect the historic Kanowna Cemetery.
In a statement, the Department said the cemetery, approximately 20 km north-east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, was established in 1894, when the thriving gold-rush community of Kanowna had 12,500 residents, a hospital, post office, railway station, 16 hotels and two breweries.
“When the alluvial gold ran out in the 1950s, Kanowna was abandoned and became a ghost town,” it said.
“In the decades since, the cemetery, in Yarri Road, fell into disrepair, and with the perimeter fence broken, cattle from nearby pastoral stations have been wandering into the site and damaging the gravesites and headstones.”
Superintendent at the EGRP, John Hedges said a group of minimum-security prisoners, with special approval for supervised community work, had been repairing the fence and doing other access restoration and clean-ups.
“There is still much work to be done, but the prisoners involved enjoyed the work and are proud to be contributing to such a worthy project,” Superintendent Hedges said.
“It’s a win-win situation, with the prisoners giving back to the community in a meaningful way and, at the same time, learning new skills as they prepare to reintegrate into society when released,” he said.
Superintendent Hedges said in order to restore the fence to its original character, the prisoners had been granted access to nearby Bardoc Station to source the same native timber used when the cemetery was first built.
He said as part of the process, the prisoners completed a chainsaw operator course.
“Other prisoners from the metal workshop have also contributed by making a new pedestrian entry gate which was installed recently,” Superintendent Hedges said.
“Future work for the prison team includes installing new pathways through the cemetery using limestone rubble donated by a local mining company and building a bund wall to deflect a watercourse which can cause damage to gravesites.”
With the perimeter fence finally secured, the Friends of Kanowna Cemetery historical group is now looking at ways to preserve and restore the graves of the 400-plus goldrush pioneers buried there.
