Vic: Part of roadside memorial removed

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2004
Vic: Part of roadside memorial removed

MELBOURNE, Aug 3 AAP - All Laurie Whelan wanted was a place to mourn his wife and two
daughters who died in a road crash in central Victoria two years ago.

But for the former City of Greater Bendigo mayor, the roadside memorial he erected
in memory of his wife and daughters has been a constant source of tension.

Julie Macdonald and her daughters Kellie, 17, and Ruth, 13, were killed in May 2002
when their car hit a truck on a blind bend in Sutton Grange Road, in Sedgwick. Learner
driver Kellie was behind the wheel.

A coroner subsequently blamed an icy or wet road surface for the smash.

Mr Whelan today said he had agreed to a Greater Bendigo Council request to move the
memorial, which included teddy bears, mementoes from the car and plants, about 20 metres
away from the roadside in June.

He said he had last week agreed to another council request to remove a flower stand
from the memorial.

But he said he was incensed when the council, which he described as incompetent and
insensitive, took it upon itself to move the one-metre high flower stand.

"Our response was, `this is it'," he said.

"There are no more requests for any other part of the memorial to be removed on the
basis that we remove it over the weekend.

"They issued this 5pm deadline on Friday ... it was removed by 3.30pm Friday afternoon."

He described negotiations with the council over the memorial as "a saga".

"It's not the council's place to interfere with it (the memorial) without our involvement,"

he said.

"It's not up to them to make a deadline which doesn't allow for our families ... to
go through some sort of process of resolving it.

"I've lost all respect for this organisation I once represented."

City of Greater Bendigo director of infrastructure services David Beard said the memorial
was moved away from the side of the road after negotiations between the truck driver involved
in the accident, Mr Whelan and the council, he said.

More than 100 residents had written to the council saying the A-frame flower stand
was a distraction to passing motorists, he said.

"Part of the memorial was removed on late Friday afternoon," he said.

"Laurie was notified that part of the memorial was to be removed by the end of the week.

"It wasn't removed by Laurie, therefore, it was removed by a council officers."

AAP kw/gfr/bes/bwl

KEYWORD: MEMORIAL

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