A group of volunteers, including the descendants of the veterans, have spruced up their grave sites by concreting and painting them.

They also repaired the headstones, as part of the Nikao Cemetery Restoration Project.

Gloria Walker was one of 65 Australian cancer patients buried at the Nikao cemetery on the Cook Islands' largest island, Rarotonga, after seeking treatment from Milan Brych.

When her daughter Cate was in the Cook Islands tending to her mother's grave, her husband Paul Morrisey found an Anzac headstone which had washed onto the beach.

"There was so much damage in the cemetery. There were headstones down on the shoreline and it was just a terrible mess," Walker said.

"It was completely overgrown, it was just full of coconut trees, vines, I didn't even know there were graves there.

"It was a complete jungle.

"I thought 'that's it, I'm doing something about this now.'"

Walker used social media to assemble a team of volunteers to restore headstones, and concrete and paint the grave sites.

She said that, during the years of neglect, at least 10 graves had been washed away in the tourist and cancer patient area.

Some of the ANZAC graves had also disappeared, and Walker went through the archives to establish how many soldiers had been buried on the site.

More than 300 Cook Islanders served with the Maori contingent in Europe and the Mediterranean during the Great War.

It is thought that this graveyard contains the largest group of Cook Islands veterans buried anywhere in the world.

Source

• abc.net.au
• radionz.co.nz
• cookislandsnews.com
• Image: Cate Walker

Ryan Philp, Eric Asomah, Dean Brien and Pratik Seegoolan participated in the 2017 Graves Project researching the lives and service histories of veterans buried in Mount Isa. Continue reading

A cross was fixed to his grave, but remained without a headstone.

But someone remembered him, and Elizabeth Lawn, a carer at Mr Kearn's former rest home, made it a routine to stop by with flowers for his grave every Anzac Day.

Mr Kearns, born Francis Thomas Kearns, died in October 2004, and Ms Lawn had visited every year since.

In time, the cross disappeared, and now the grave site is unmarked.

Ms Lawn is sometimes joined by her friend, rest home manager Barbara Moore, on Anzac Day. Together the women sought action on the headstone.

"He was one of those guys who touched my heart, I suppose," Ms Lawn said. "Every year I think `poor Frankie'. This year I thought, we really need to do something."

The women approached the RSA to discuss the possibility of a headstone and the wheels were quickly set in motion.

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