Alone or Lonely “Holowilena“ Traditional Geocache
Alone or Lonely “Holowilena“
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(regular)
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The “ALONE OR LONELY” series of Bowz2 caches acknowledges the extreme feats of endurance and hardship encountered by the pioneers of our country.
Our pioneers lived and worked without the advantages of modern communications or medical knowledge and skills, in remote and isolated locations where help was often days away by horseback or horse and cart. Consequently the want to succeed in this harsh country was often paid with a high price by young and old, male and female alike...
Added to this, when civil registration (i.e. death certificates) was introduced to the Australian colonies in the 1840s and 1850s, the models used were from Britain. Whilst the intentions were admirable, the tyranny of distance and the climate meant that practice was often very different to the required procedure. This was evident with remote deaths. To strictly follow the processes in the heat of summer was quite impractical when faced with the disposal of a rapidly decaying body, let alone considering those unexpected deaths many miles from the nearest community.
A lonely grave could be considered to be a single or small group of graves outside a recognised / currently used cemetery that never had more than twenty graves.
You can often find very isolated single burials through to the small collections at disused railway sidings, rural homesteads and long forgotten chapel sites. Whilst many sites have no headstone, some are no more than rumoured graves but others are well documented, some are unknown identities (I.e. unknown stockman) but ALL have a story to be told.
Visiting these sites can provide insight into past history, a way to remember those before us, as they shouldn’t be forgotten and it might help us to remember just how easy we have it in this day and age!
NOTE: Lonely, does not always mean remote!. Colonel William Light the founder of Adelaide is buried in a city square but his grave is lonely in the fact that it is outside a regular cemetery.
About this cache location:
There are records of 17 graves for Holowilena with 12 Warwick family members and a Waterman however not all are here.
There is a grave listed near the station buildings (Davies?) approximately 500 -600 meters from the cemetery (which is very surprising considering how close to the cemetery)... (Please note that it’s ON PRIVATE PROPERTY so NO ACCESS!)
Another: is identified as approx 5 Kilometres north north west from here but it is also ON PRIVATE PROPERTY with NO ACCESS its description is “No headstone, in scrub above old Yak Chimney: HARRIS girl”.
Two more that are listed (Davies Frances Maud 15 Apr 1885 and Unknown) as Holowilena are located at as Mattawarrangala Station now known as Holowilena South approximately 10.5 kilometres due south from here (These are also ON PRIVATE PROPERTY NO ACCESS!)
Significant history and interesting information about Holowilena can be found at this link:
(visit link)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Crccre