By David and Melanie Warren
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For many years we had heard of ruins and an orchard near our property, but had failed to locate either. Then our neighbour Ken Muller heard there was a grave there also, so together we made several explorations and finally located the site.
The grave was in a very sad state, being overgrown with large and small trees, home to a large wombat and surrounded with corrugated iron. The headstone was moss covered and black but still readable and we noted that the centenary of the child’s death was August 23, 2015.
The site is located in a far corner of Gunningrah and with the permission of Charlie Maslin we set out to clean the site in time for the centenary.
The work entailed chain sawing down the larger trees and branches, removing many small regrowth trees and shrubs, removing the iron surround and replacing it with a timber post and rail fence, straightening and rewiring in places the original timber post and wire fence which surrounds the site, plumbing and trimming the gate posts to enable a new timber gate to be erected (this will be supplied by Charlie Maslin), cleaning and resetting the head stone.
The pictures attached show our progress to date and apart from the gate we will be finished in time for the centenary.
We also located two old glass vases cut from early 1900s bottles buried in the ground which appear to have had flowers in them at some stage. These have been repaired and cleaned and filled with stones and tulips and will be placed beside the headstone.
We carried out some research and found the child is the youngest of seven children born to Samuel and Mary Rolfe (nee Seears).
The following article was discovered, and also articles in the Bombala Times dated February 10, 1933 and December 10, 1937 noting the death of Samuel and Mary.
The Bombala Times, August 27, 1915 -
Mr Sam Rolfe is having a hard battle just now with the scarlet fever epidemic. Mrs. Rolfe and the children are all down with it and one death has occurred. The youngest boy, William James aged 7 ½ passed away on Monday afternoon from scarlet fever and pneumonia, although everything possible was done to save the little chap. Sickness is bad enough at any time, but to have a household stricken down and to lose a fine little boy is indeed a grievous trial.