I wonder if anyone can help. I am writing this page for my website and would appreciate some more info.
Eliza Kennedy’s
grave is beside the Silver City Highway on the sandy bank of
Cobham Lake. Apparently
the lake was quite deep once but silted up in the dry years. The gravestone is broken and the first word of her epitaph is difficult to read:
"Her(?) charity covereth a multitude of sins".
An
old tank plasterer at
Milparinka told me that Eliza Kennedy drowned while trying to save the tavern keeper’s two
young daughters who got into difficulties while swimming in
the lake. Then an elderly lady in
Tibooburra suggested Eliza may have worked as a prostitute at the tavern. The
tank plasterer said she lived and worked there and just enjoyed life.
I have looked around
the lake for the
ruins of the tavern
and found a lot of rubbish and bottles on the NE corner of
the lake, but I'm not sure if this is where it was. Does any one know any more about Eliza Kennedy?
Another mystery along the Highway is the disappearance of the
grave at the
White Cliffs turn off.
I was told many years ago that it was the
grave of an Aboriginal bloke from
Tibooburra. He apparently hitched a ride back to
Tibooburra from
Broken Hill with Blake Whitehair, the original owner of the
Corner Country Store.
Blake had his old truck loaded with store supplies and made his passenger ride on top of the load. The bloke then went to sleep and was thrown off on a rough section of the road and was killed.
He was buried where he was found and the
grave had a wood post and netting fence built around it.
Sometime in the 90’s the
intersection was re aligned and all trace of the
grave seems to have disappeared. I hope the
grave of Eliza Kennedy doesn’t suffer the same fate.
Geoff from outbacksecrets.com
http://www.outbacksecrets.com