Arthur Costello, accident - Cooma, NSW, Australia
S 36° 12.899 E 149° 07.946
55H E 691681 N 5990098
This is the headstone for Arthur Costello, accidentally killed in 1958.
Waymark Code: WM10F99
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 04/27/2019
Views: 3
The black granite tablet for Arthur Joseph Costello is fixed to what looks like a cast concrete vertical slab. The transcription is:
In Loving Memory of
Arthur Joseph Costello
born Portarlington Leix Ireland
Accidentally Killed 18th March 1958
Aged 19 years.
R * I * P
Erected by His Irish Mates.
Fortunately a little extra has been found for this poor 'teenager'. In 1958 two Arthur Costellos came out to Australia, an older one from Portlaoise, and this one, his nephew, as part of the 7,000 person workforce on the biggest hydro-electric system the world had seen.
The older (uncle) was into gambling, and as a boxer became known as "King of Jindabyne'. The nephew, who would have been too young to drive the HEAVY earthmoving machinery, had put his age up on the employment application, and was working on the nearby Adaminaby Dam - which BTW, can hold NINE time the volume of Sydney Harbour. The truck had notoriously unreliable electric steering, and the rough terrain did nothing to help.
"On March 18th, 1958, young Costello was observed to stop and examine his steering. An hour later, he was dead. His machine had run off an embankment and overturned, crushing him. He had been in Australia for only six weeks." [ex-Irish times website: Life and Death on the Snowy, 16 October, 1999. Retrieved 28/4/2019]
Address: Cooma Cemetery, Mittagang Street, Cooma North, NSW, Australia
Visited: 1531 Sunday, 30 December, 2018
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