Quaama cemetery.
14 August 2024
Bega Valley Shire Council and Atlas of Life are pleased to present the next Life in our Cemeteries event at the Quaama cemetery on Saturday 31 August from 11am to 3pm.
"The great amount of interest in previous events just goes to show that people are very interested in their local history, plants and wildlife, which is fantastic," Council's Environmental Management Officer, Erin Moon said.
"The fact the location is their local cemetery also makes it a unique event.
"By identifying the biodiversity at the site and detecting any changes, programs like this help to inform the future management of our shire's cemeteries.
Chairperson of Atlas of Life, Raymond Daly said everyone who joins the event will explore the cemetery and document what they find on the iNaturalist app, so the identity of the plant, insect or animal can be confirmed.
"Participants will explore the vegetation community with botanist, Jackie Miles and discover the history of Quaama cemetery with historian, Fiona Firth," Mr Daly said.
"Jackie Miles tells us that like some of the other rural cemeteries in the region, Quaama cemetery provides an insight into what the vegetation of Bega Valley's farming areas might have been like prior to clearing for agriculture.
"Being adjacent to Dry River, it carries a mixture of Lowland Grassy Woodland and River-flat Eucalypt Forest species, both now listed as Threatened Ecological Communities because of the extent they have been cleared and on-going threats from weeds and farming activities."
Fiona Firth said Quaama was developed beside the ironically named Dry River by colonists in the 1870s and it was declared a village in 1887.
"The cemetery, set aside on the edge of the village, contains only a few older memorials from the early 1900s, reflecting the small population over the first half of the20th Century," she said.
"It's not known how many unmarked graves there are in the Quaama cemetery but with population increasing in and around the village in the 1980s, many more burials have taken place since then."
The Quaama Life in our Cemeteries event will feature a lunchtime session on tree responses to bushfire by arborists, Andrew and Rebeccah Norman.
Potoroo Palace's Anna Lindstrand and Kimberley Howard will give a talk on feral cat impacts and wildlife rescue and Deb Taylor will lead a walk and talk on the resident invertebrates. A light lunch will also be provided.
Atlas of Life assures the community that full care and respect for the cemetery and those interred will be maintained during this event.
The Atlas of Life is a not-for-profit organisation and an ongoing citizen-science project.
If you are interested in participating, register here: https://sdopgzjz.paperform.co/
