By Callum Ludwig
A dedicated Upper Yarra volunteer has been recently recognised for 50 years of committment to a community facility which means the world to many in one of the hardest times of their lives.
On Monday 21 October, the Upper Yarra Public Cemetery Trust met for their meeting and commended Chairman Frank Colverson for his five decades of service to the trust and the cemetery, as well as farewelling Roger Pape who was moving on after 15 years.
Mr Colverson said it was a very pleasant surprise.
“They did it all themselves, all those people I’ve worked with for a long number of years made the presentation which was really nice,” he said.
“The success with anything is to have a good team and you’ve got to have people who are willing to be part of that team, it’s just a matter of keeping the team going,”
“I suppose I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been there for a while and I’ve been able to carry on some of those things that we’ve done to continually improve the cemetery.”
Chris Thomas was the one to present Mr Colverson with his Certificate of Appreciation.
Mr Colverson said he was introduced to the Trust by a forme Shire of Upper Yarra engineer when he started to work for the Shire and thought it would be good for his career.
“That was in 1974, just started volunteering then and I just kept going, one of the first things we did was we started a lawn section, there’d only been a monumental section at the cemetery and then we started the lawn section which was just coming into vogue in the mid-70s,” he said.
“We’ve just been doing projects ever since people have joined and left and I just seem to be continuing on,”
“But it’s been a team effort, there’s been probably five or six or seven people who’ve been on the cemetery trust for a certain time before they’ve rotated, lost interest or gone off.”
Other projects that the Trust declared have ‘Frank’s mark’ on them include new provisions for cremated remains, the office refurbishment, road construction, introduction of natural bush burials, the shelter construction, planting of native plants Indigenous to the area and construction of the wetlands and walking tracks.
Mr Colverson said his goal has always just been to make the cemetery as pleasant as it could be.
“We are the end of the line for a lot of people, and when people are burying their relatives, friends or loved ones, they really need a nice place to put them to rest,” he said.
“Probably the hardest thing in the world anyone has to do is bury someone so I want to make sure the surroundings are at least pleasant and the service they get there from the staff is good.”
