Toowoomba Drayton Cemetery: Headstone Healing Project builds momentum to fix $500,000 vandalism at historic site

Community members from all backgrounds are banding together with one key purpose – to repair the $500,000 in damage vandals caused to more than 100 headstones at a Toowoomba cemetery. Here’s how you can help.

A community effort to fix the $500,000 in damage caused by vandals to one of Queensland’s oldest cemeteries is gathering steam as more volunteers jump on board.

Local personality and Chronicle columnist Greg Johnson and business owner Jim O’Dea are spearheading the revitalisation project, after they were left shocked and dismayed by the August incident that damaged or destroyed 143 sites at Toowoomba’s Drayton Cemetery.

Three teenagers were arrested as a result of the damage caused on August 9, with two dealt with under the Youth Justice Act and another issued a caution.

The Toowoomba Regional Council has released a list of graves, while also indicating it could take years to repair the damage.

Toowoomba Region Mayor Geoff McDonald surveys the damage to graves at the Drayton Cemetery in August. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The incident sparked condemnation across the state, including from Mr Johnson in his regular columns.

“Jim is the president and chair (of our group), and he only came to me because of my regular articles I wrote about the matter, where I said how angry I was,” he said.

“He wrote to me, saying he felt the same but was more sad for the families.

“The longer it goes on, the less angry you get about the boys, and the more sad you become about the cemetery.”

Mr Johnson said the group, dubbed the Headstone Healing Project, now numbered more than 30 people, including prominent community organisers like Chris Meibusch.

Mr Johnson said once the necessary not-for-profit infrastructure was set up to take donations from the community, the next step would be try to find descendants for more than 110 gravestones still unclaimed.

Toowoomba concerned citizens Greg Johnson and Jim O'Dea are spearheading the project to repair $500,000 in damage caused by vandals to Drayton Cemetery.

“There were 143 graves damaged at an estimated repair cost of $500,000 and to date, less than five have been repaired by family and another 25 are aware of the damage so far but can’t afford to repair them,” he said.

“That brings us down to 113 — there are those folks who were buried in the 1800s, and those graves’ damage were extensive and expensive.

“We’re meeting with our lawyer and we need to get more structure — we need to think about incorporating it as an entity.

“We haven’t actually asked for money, we can’t do a lot more before we can get the okay from council to write to families.”

Vandals damaged or destroyed more than 300 graves at Toowoomba's Drayton Cemetery. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Mr Johnson said he had been touched by the number of people wanting to help restore and preserve the memories of citizens to which they had no relation.

“These people built all the infrastructure, they created the roads and churches, and this is what we’ve done to them,” he said.

“It’s travelling fast, people are really interested in fixing the vandalism.”

People wanting to get involved with the Headstone Healing Project can send an email to [e-mail].