Granite monument unveiled

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 38

Granite monument unveiled

PA Wanganui The sun shone on Tangiwai on Sunday as a joint effort between Radio New Zealand, Lions and Lionesses clubs from Ruapehu, Waiouru, Taihape and Hunterville, and the Master Monumental Masons’ Association reached its climax.

A granite monument was unveiled and speeches were made in a ceremony that seemed finally to lay to rest the ghosts of the 1953 rail disaster.

The Wellington-Auck-land express had crashed into the Whangaehu River, killing 151 people, after a lahar from Mount Ruapehu’s crater lake swept away Tangiwai

bridge. A drive to have something erected at the site began after the National Radio manager, Mr Errol Pike, was on holiday and noticed it was marked only by a small dilapidated wooden cross with the words peeled off. The project started after representatives from interested groups met to discuss the idea.

The Ruapehu Lions Club president, Mr lan Strachan, who gave hundreds of hours to the project, was ecstatic with the turn-out. The ceremony was broadcast live on National Radio.

The- Railways Corporation’s group general

manager, Mr Francis Small, and Mr Pike spoke after the dedication service, as did Mr Strachan. Mr Strachan, who helped recover bodies from the Whangaehu River after the bridge collapsed, said it was a terrible night.

Although he had served in World War II and was no stranger to death, he was shaken by the disaster.

“It seemed worse than actual war,” he said. “There were children’s bodies, and I remember picking up toys and things like that from the riverbank. It took me a long time to get used to it.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence Weggery, of the

Salvation Army who gave comfort and support to the next-of-kin of victims that day, was another speaker. He said he would never forget the awful scene.

It was nature on the rampage, he said.

His memories were shared yesterday by Dr Fraser McDonald, of Auckland, who in 1953 was the doctor at Waiouru Military Camp, and who worked through the night of Christmas Eve to help the injured.

Dr McDonald told the 700-strong crowd gathered near the bridge yesterday that immense bravery was shown by .everybody. Arriving in one of the first vehicles on the

scene, Dr McDonald said it was terrifying but there was not one sign of panic. The noise and smell of the sulphur and the eerie green-whiteness glowing in the headlights from silt-covered people aimlessly wandering around the site stood out in his memories.

So too did the sight of the bodies thrown around like dolls in carriages, and the carriages themselves thrown like toys in the river.

He said many of the bodies had horrendous wounds, and had the look of people drowned at sea. The blood on their bodies had been washed off in the torrent.