Hivesville Memorial Park, Qld

Hivesville is a tiny village in the South Burnett region of Qld. Home to a pub and a service station/post office and a few locals it is located some 30km from Wondai on the road to Proston and the Boondooma Dam. Around 2004 the local progress association decided to create a Memorial Park in a plot of land owned by the shire council across the road from the pub. Previously Dawn Service was held outside the pub at a plaque honouring local Vietnam Veteran, Russell J. Watkins.

The park was built over a period of a couple of years by the local community, some veterans and others not. It was a labour of love for all involved with most Saturday mornings spent at the park working on the project. The community and those further afield put in a lot of work. Some points to note are the plaque honouring Russell J. Watkins sits in a hut constructed of timbers from an old Cobb & Co. stage hut donated by local identity Trapper Ramke. The supports for the hut were milled on site and the stainless Lest We Forget were also created by Trapper.

Word of the building spread and people would stop by and donate, one Brisbane RSL rep stopped by to donate an Australian flag, a truck driver pulled up on his way through to town to donate money.

The Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club rode out for a night at the pub and to view the park, forming a circle with the locals building the park and passing around a bottle of Stones in commemoration for the fallen. A local concreting company provided the many cubic metres of concrete around the flag pole at cost and then provided the expert labour to finish it for free.

The park was opened in 2006 the week after Remembrance Day that year but it had been used for the previous ANZAC Day Dawn Service prior to completion.

The park is beautifully maintained by the council and locals and is a testament to the area where a small community came together to honour our freedoms.