Oscar Parry
Hume council will inquire with VicRoads about the maintenance of a historic Hume and Hovell monument in Bulla.
The cairn is located at Oaklands Road in Bulla, nearby a site where Hamilton Hume and William Hovell camped as part of their 1824 expedition from Appin in New South Wales.
It was erected in 1924 as a 100-year commemoration of the expedition.
Hume council endorsed a motion from councillor Joseph Haweil at tis June 11 meeting, which recommended the council writes toRoads and Road Safety Minister Melissa Horne to inquire with VicRoads about maintaining the monument.
Cr Haweil said that the monument site is in a dilapidated state.
“It’s important that this otherwise unknown monument that is hidden behind some trees on Oakland Road, in a state of disrepair, receives some much-needed attention,” Cr Haweil said.
“I’ve seen it more closely associated with dumped rubbish … than I have with it being a site of memorial and remembrance.”
Cr Jodi Jackson suggested that in the letter, the council mentions the volunteers who maintain the nearby Alister Clark Memorial Rose Garden and the gardens of the Historic Woodlands Park.
“I don’t have any doubt that our volunteers would be quite pleased to add [the monument] to their schedule … I think it would be really good if the state would support that kind of volunteering,” Cr Jackson said.
“So if the state were able to provide a little bit of assistance to the volunteer groups that exist … that would be great.”
October will mark the 200th anniversary of Hume and Hovell’s expedition, where they travelled through multiple sites in Victoria in search of grazing land.
