Mr & Mrs W. BellPrint Page

The gates to Bell Park commemorate Mr and Mrs W. Bell for their service to the community of Emu Park. The park was proclaimed Bell Park in 1930 and the gates were erected in 1936. The memorial tablet was placed on the gates on the 30th June 1940. 

On Sunday a representative gathering of Emu Park citizens met at the gates of Bell Park to honour the memory of two of their finest citizens and friends, Mr and Mrs W. Bell. The proceedings opened with the National Anthem. Mr Woodward (chairman), in his opening remarks, said: "We have assembled today to show our respect for, and our appreciation of, those two noble citizens of our village, the late Mr and Mrs Bell, and to commemorate that appreciation for all time by completing the work of the Memorial Gates by placing therein a tablet to the perpetual memory of our beloved and now departed friends and benefactors. Mr Woodward expressed regret that Mr W. Tait, who had held the offlce of chairman of the Improvement League in its latter years, was unable to be present through ill-health.

On his behalf, therefore, and as president of the Progress Association, Mr Woodward spoke on behalf of both bodies and eulogised the merits ot Mr and Mrs Bell. Even to the end, he said, Mrs Bell had had a strong desire to be doing something for her beloved park, work which the people of Emu Park and the Livingtone Shire Council thought so worthy of recognition as to bestow on it the name which they all hold dear, Bell Park. Mr Woodward closed his remarks by thanking all who had helped Mrs Bell in the past as well as present workers, and also tendered a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Allen, Rockhampton, who installed the tablet free of cost. Mr Thomasson, as an old councillor, spoke also for Mrs Mills, who was so long associated with Mrs Bell on the Emu Park Improvement League, as secretary, and placed before the public the various donations which the late Mrs Bell had made. Donations to Jetty fund £300; Shelter Shed, Bell Park, £70,  Fishermen's Reserve, £35; drainage in Bell Park, £30; general cleaning up at various times in Bell Park, £20; donation to Cenotaph, £10. Mrs Fuller, who was prime mover in the Memorial Gates being erected, also spoke. Mr Todd then unveiled the tablet and mentioned, the time when Mrs Bell had opened the Memorial Gates, about four years previously. Mr R. Bell, on behalf or the family, thanked the speakers for their fine testimony to his late parents, also the public for its appreciation in erecting the tablet to their memory.
The gathering then sang the National Anthem. 
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.), 2 July 1940.

Memorial Gates Unveiling 1936

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