Missing plaque mystery solved by son
YOUR STORY: On Friday June 26 a friend, Mrs Joan Woolcock of Toowoomba, phoned me and told me of a plaque that had been found attached to a piece of wood in Gatton Creek by Friends of the Escarpment Parks.
I was able to tell her the story about it.
My mother Edith Harbison came to live in Toowoomba in the late 60s, after her husband died, to be close to us.
She loved nature and walked a lot in Redwood Park.
After she died, I approached the Toowoomba City Council to ask if it would agree to my providing a bench to be placed along the walking track.
They readily agreed and made an attractive three-seater backed-bench for me.
At the same time, I had the plaque made that has just been found.
Being of a quirky nature, I thought that if I screwed it on to the back of the bench someone might take it as a souvenir.
So I climbed under the seat and attached the plaque there!
That may have contributed to it being found.
The bench was placed at the bottom of the range just in from the highway, over Gatton Creek.
It was some distance up the track where I'm sure everyone thought it was well above flood level.
But it was no match for the devastating flood that brought such tragedy to Toowoomba, Grantham and the whole general area.
I'm assuming that the torrent of water smashed the bench to smithereens.
Now it is something of a miracle that the fragment of the bench with the plaque attached has turned up.
I'm extremely thankful to the wonderful people (Friends of the Escarpment Parks) who found it.
I've tried, without success, to contact Mr Hugh Krensky to thank him personally for the Friends' effort.
