Precious Souls Memorial (Willaston Cemetery Babies Memorial Garden)
The Willaston Cemetery includes and provides a babies memorial to recognise past, present and future baby and infant deaths. In July 2007, the Willaston Cemetery Babies Memorial Garden was established as a memorial for the 190 babies buried without recognition and ceremony within the Cemetery from 1877 – 1986.
In 2010, a section of the Babies Memorial Garden was re-designed to incorporate a section where a marker could be placed to acknowledge the babies who died during pregnancy, at birth and in infancy, and who are not buried in the Willaston Cemetery.
Named the Precious Souls Memorial, this part of the Garden offers a place to sit, reflect and remember a family member who has died.
Memorial Markers, with the exception of the inscription, will be a leaf (copies available for viewing on application), and will be placed on the face of the kerb style wall within the Precious Souls Memorial only. Memorials will not be placed at other locations or on other infrastructure within the Willaston Cemetery Babies Memorial Garden.
No other type or style of plaque, marker, monument or structure will be allowed within the Precious Souls Memorial. Inscriptions will be limited to four lines including Names and Dates. Application for a permit to place a Memorial Marker in the Precious Souls Memorial will be via a form prescribed by Council.
The cost of application and Memorial placement will be indicated in Councils Fees and Charges. Only Council will be responsible for installation of Memorials.
In an effort to be inclusive, no application will be necessarily refused - Council is not prescriptive regarding eligibility to place a marker, as it is not a matter of defining when a baby is a baby or otherwise, but rather that a person, persons or family wishes to display a memorial for a child who has died, whether stillborn or otherwise in years past or present day.
Any unusual applications will be referred to Council for consideration. Permits will provided for a 50 year period.
Please click HERE to fill out an Application for Memorial Plaque Precious Souls Memorial.
Watch the video of Mayor Karen Redman, along with Ali Chapman and Patricia Dent OAM, discuss the 10 year anniversary of the Precious Souls Memorial Garden at the Willaston Cemetery HERE
