A 96 Candles Ceremony is being held at Kembla Heights Community Hall on Monday night to remember the 96 men and boys killed in the Mount Kembla mining disaster in 1902.
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The moving event at 6.30 will mark 115 years since that fateful day and is organised Mt Kembla Mining Heritage. Chair Elizabeth Roberts said members of the CFMEU will be among those marking the occasion along with Federal and State politicians. “Fred Moore is coming. It is so important he just will not miss out”.
Sunday saw the start of memorial events with the Mount Kembla Heritage Festival that Mrs Roberts described as “a big day with a lovely family feeling. We had about the same number of people as last year. It was sensational in all the sunshine with everyone enjoying the day.”
Mrs Roberts said the festival and the moving candle ceremony were important ways to remember an important part of Australian history. It has also become a chance for many people to catch up on an annual basis. And it brings many visitors.
Sunday included the planting of memorial trees for the 17 WW1 soldiers linked to Mount Kembla who died between 1917 and 1919. “We planted the final part of the war memorial today. 1917 and 1918 were completed today and Mount Kembla now has a living war memorial on the Mount Kembla Memorial Pathway”.
Mount Kembla Public School held its annual `Day on the Lawn’ that included the presentation of some displays from the Heritage Centre in the old school building.
At 2pm an alarm siren signaled the start of the 117th Mount Kembla Mine Disaster Memorial Church Service in the Soldiers’ and Miners’ Memorial Church.
Mrs Roberts said the weather was not looking as good for the Monday night’s candle ceremony and a decision was made on Monday morning to move it indoors.
Mrs Roberts said it was the 16th year a heritage event had been held at Mount Kembla and she had been involved since the first one.
She said six people work year round preparing for the heritage event and a search had started to recruit some more people to join the committee to help carry the tradition forward for many years to come.