Murchison’s Italian Ossario is one of three foreign war grave cemeteries in Australia.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
A unique feature of Murchison is the Italian Ossario, located to the rear of the town cemetery in Willoughby St.
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It is one of three foreign war grave cemeteries in Australia — the others being Tatura (German) and Cowra (Japanese).
A memorial service is held at the ossario annually.
The Italian word ‘ossario’ (old bones) refers to a place of final rest for human remains that were initially buried elsewhere.
The building has an attractive Mediterranean appearance; it is built of Castlemaine stone and roofed with Roman tiles.
An altar of white Italian marble, with a wooden cross suspended above it and an ornate copper lamp hanging from the ceiling, is located in the sanctuary.
Memorials are located on either side of the forecourt.
The Italian Ossario has been listed on the Victorian Heritage Register since 2020.
This unique building is the last resting place of 130 Italian prisoners of war and internees who died while in detention camps in this country during World War II.
Their names are recorded on bronze plaques in the sanctuary.
The site is the final resting place for 130 Italian POWs and internees from World War II.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Listed are 36 civilian internees, 73 privates, two sergeants, one sergeant-major, three corporals, three lieutenants, two majors, three corporal majors, two captains, three marshals and two seamen.
One of the internees is a woman, and there is also an eight-day-old baby boy.
Some of the Italians in the ossario died from wounds, some from natural causes and suicides, but most from drowning.
One was killed in a road accident near Nagambie, another, being transferred from South Australia to Murchison, jumped under the train at Seymour, and Carmelo Caraccioli was murdered by a compatriot.
After Italian migration to Australia commenced in the post-war years, the Murchison Cemetery began to be a place of pilgrimage, as it was where a number of Italians from nearby detention camps were buried.
Mass was celebrated annually, out in the open, before a temporary altar draped with the flags of Australia and Italy.
Then the idea of an ossario evolved.
Luigi Gigliotti of Kyabram proposed that the bodies of all Italian POWs and internees who died during their incarceration in Australia during the war should be brought to one burial place, and set about raising the needed funds.
Murchison was the site chosen for the ossario, and bodies were exhumed from Kerang, Murchison, Tatura and Sale in Victoria; Albury, Bathurst, Bourke, Hay and Mudgee in NSW, and from Bridgetown, Corrigan, Harvey, Karrakatta, Katanning, Kondinin, Narembeen, Narrogin, Northam, Three Springs and Wyalkatchem in Western Australia.
Costing £25,000, the ossario building was completed and dedicated in 1961.
This year, the annual service will be held on Sunday, November 9, the official procession commencing at 11.30am.
All are welcome to this moving event, and it is wise to bring a chair and arrive about 11am.
Murchison Historical Society will have a table at the cemetery gate with bunches of fresh flowers from Avonlea Flowers Murchison, and information about the ossario.
Due to the diligent work of researcher Joanne Tapiolas, details of each Italian resting in the ossario can be obtained from the society.
— Kay Ball, Murchison and District Historical Society Inc.
Floral tributes placed at the monument during a past service at Murchison’s Italian Ossario.
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