A HEADSTONE at Carinya Gardens Cemetery was the missing piece in a puzzle Deanne Reedy’s family had been trying to put together for four decades.
But the inscription on the deteriorating plaque marking the grave of John George Howe – Ms Reedy’s long-lost great uncle – contains another mystery Ms Reedy hopes to solve.
When Mr Howe crossed the Tasman Sea in 1973 to work in Australia, his family never heard from him again.
Unbeknownst to his relatives in New Zealand, the 24-year-old had been killed in a car accident between Penola and Mount Gambier – likely only a few weeks after he arrived.
“For 40 years none of the family knew where he was,” Ms Reedy told The Border Watch.
“My mum’s aunt – his sister – did a deaths and marriages search five years ago and up popped his death certificate here in Mount Gambier.
“They had spelled his name differently – John George is the English version of his name – but she managed to find him.”
While Mount Gambier might have otherwise had no significance for Ms Reedy, who lives in Brisbane, in an unlikely turn of events it so happened that Ms Reedy’s ailing father now lives in the Blue Lake city.
“My mum was randomly telling me the story and I said ‘dad lives in Mount Gambier mum, we can get him to check out the cemetery’,” she said.
“My dad and his partner Shirley went through The Border Watch archives and traced it back and found his grave.”
Known to the friends he had made in his short time in Mount Gambier as “Maori John”, Mr Howe had been living at the South Aussie Hotel where he was “always playing the guitar, singing and being happy” according to publicans Rex and Edie Clark.
“He was only here for a couple of weeks when he started working as a linesman and he died in a car accident on his way to work,” Ms Reedy said.
“It’s a really sad story. He lived at the pub and no one could find his family – no one let anyone in New Zealand know.
“There is no date of birth on his grave and the publicans pulled the money together to bury him.”
Two linesmen from New Zealand died in the car accident – John and another young man from Auckland who had also been living at the South Aussie.
In a story published by The Border Watch in December 1973, Ms Clark was quoted as saying the young men were “two of the loveliest lads you could find”.
“Last time we were here we went to the pub and had a beer there for him,” Ms Reedy said.
Maori John’s story might have ended here if it were not for the mysterious final line on his headstone, which reads “always remembered by Helen”.
“We went to visit the grave last time we were in Mount Gambier and ever since we have been wondering who Helen is,” Ms Reedy said.
“Was she a girlfriend?
“Hopefully there is someone still around who remembers John – we don’t even have any photos of him, so it would be nice if someone did.
“If anyone might know who Helen is, we would love to hear from them.”
