TRAGEDY AT COOYAR
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:35 pm
TRAGEDY AT COOYAR
© Jeff Thorpe September 2020
Recently I came across Ethel Tebbs’ grave
by the creek at Cooyar where she drowned,
an unusual place for such a touching enclave
Swinging Bridge Park, now a camping compound.
A neat picket fence enclosed the tombstone
and a noticeboard displayed Ethel’s Death Certificate
plus, the printed circumstance of her death shown,
an event which for the small village was significant.
Born 15 April, 1900, Ethel was aged four she died
on 28 December 1904, in an incident surely unintended,
collecting water, on the steep creek bank she did slide,
falling headlong into the waterhole, the stream unattended.
Her mother following, saw no sign of Ethel at the creek
and thought instead, she’d gone to a nearby friend’s place
alas, she was not there, concern rising to a peak,
the worst predicament ever, the mother soon had to face.
Ethel’s unresponsive body was dragged from the water
hooked to her clothing by a clothes prop,
artificial respiration tried, rescuers did not falter
but, with no sign of life resuscitation forced to stop.
A very sad occasion, the death of one so young,
Cooyar at the time with no proclaimed cemetery
thus, burial took place beside where swing bridge swung,
Ethel Tebbs at rest next to her life taking estuary.
Over a century later, Ethel’s grave is well tended,
testament to respect shown by Cooyar townsfolk,
the site a peaceful spot which to campers is recommended,
and from whom sympathetic feelings doubtless do evoke.
It’s coincidence that George Essex Evans was District Registrar
who recorded Ethel Tebbs’ untimely demise,
an acclaimed poet, Evans’ works on pioneers lined his repertoire,
one wonders, would a poet on such a tragedy agonize?
One of Evans’ most famous poems is "The Women of the West",
graphically describing the trials which they face
though Ethel’s life was short, it’s felt it was not stressed
and her legacy that of a child pure and chaste.
© Jeff Thorpe September 2020
Recently I came across Ethel Tebbs’ grave
by the creek at Cooyar where she drowned,
an unusual place for such a touching enclave
Swinging Bridge Park, now a camping compound.
A neat picket fence enclosed the tombstone
and a noticeboard displayed Ethel’s Death Certificate
plus, the printed circumstance of her death shown,
an event which for the small village was significant.
Born 15 April, 1900, Ethel was aged four she died
on 28 December 1904, in an incident surely unintended,
collecting water, on the steep creek bank she did slide,
falling headlong into the waterhole, the stream unattended.
Her mother following, saw no sign of Ethel at the creek
and thought instead, she’d gone to a nearby friend’s place
alas, she was not there, concern rising to a peak,
the worst predicament ever, the mother soon had to face.
Ethel’s unresponsive body was dragged from the water
hooked to her clothing by a clothes prop,
artificial respiration tried, rescuers did not falter
but, with no sign of life resuscitation forced to stop.
A very sad occasion, the death of one so young,
Cooyar at the time with no proclaimed cemetery
thus, burial took place beside where swing bridge swung,
Ethel Tebbs at rest next to her life taking estuary.
Over a century later, Ethel’s grave is well tended,
testament to respect shown by Cooyar townsfolk,
the site a peaceful spot which to campers is recommended,
and from whom sympathetic feelings doubtless do evoke.
It’s coincidence that George Essex Evans was District Registrar
who recorded Ethel Tebbs’ untimely demise,
an acclaimed poet, Evans’ works on pioneers lined his repertoire,
one wonders, would a poet on such a tragedy agonize?
One of Evans’ most famous poems is "The Women of the West",
graphically describing the trials which they face
though Ethel’s life was short, it’s felt it was not stressed
and her legacy that of a child pure and chaste.