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Yarri Headstone
Yarri Headstone
Photographs supplied by Diane Watson

The headstone on the grave commemorates Yarri who rescued 49 people in the great flood of June 1852.

In June 1852, a massive flood demolished the original township of Gundagai which was then built on the Murrumbidgee floodplain. Eighty-nine people are known to have lost their lives. The Wiradjuri people, with their knowledge of the land , saved the lives of many Europeans.  Yarri, was one of the first on the river, in the deadliest conditions at the height of the flood, in only a bark canoe. Yarri was joined the next day by another aborigine, Jacky Jacky. The epic rescue took three days and two nights of exhausting effort.

Yarri had rescued 49 people and Jacky Jacky another 20. The European settlers were very grateful to Yarri and Jackey and presented them with inscribed bronze breastplates in recognition of their bravery. Yarri's is one of the most dramatic stories of Aboriginal-European interaction and certainly one of very few from an English perspective in which the Aboriginal people are clearly shown in a heroic light.

 

Location

Address:William Street, North Gundagai Cemetery, Gundagai, 2722
State:NSW
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -35.051389
Long: 148.111944
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Grave
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Indigenous
Actual Event Start Date:25-June-1852
Actual Event End Date:25-June-1852

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Friday 7th September, 1990
Front Inscription

In memory of Yarri

Hero of Gundagai

An Aboriginal man who rescued 49 people on the night of 24th June 1852 from the flooded Murrumbidgee River in Gundagai rests here.

This monument was erected on 7th September 1990 by the Tumut - Brungle Local Aboriginal Land Council in recognition of  Yarri`s heroism

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au