Community & Business
11 September, 2024
Plaque honours the memory of Spencer George Kineavy
A plaque has been erected in the Western Creek State Forest, in memory of Spencer George Kineavy who accidentally died in 1955 at the Internment Camp near the Bend Barracks, west of Millmerran.
Don Cameron recently returned to the site at the Western Creek State Forest where his co-worker and friend Spencer Kineavy fell to his death on 13th November 1955.
Spencer worked with Mr Cameron at the Millmerran sawmill for a short period of time, before he left to cart logs out of the forest for the Hart brothers.
On that fateful day in 1955, Spencer had seen a newly fledged cockatoo in the hollow of a nearby tree.
He invited Mr Cameron, and Sam Western, a timber feller, to watch as he climbed the tree to retrieve the young fledgling from the nest.
Spencer drove spikes into the trunk to help him scale the tree, spikes which are still visible today.
Sadly, Spencer slipped as he reached out to the nest and fell to his death in front of his co-workers.
He was 25 years old, and is buried at the Millmerran Cemetery.
Sixty-nine years later, Mr Cameron was reminded of Spencer’s death when reading through The Western Creek Internment Camps of World War II by Christine Turner.
Reading about the tragedy brought back memories of that fatal day.
Accompanied by family members, Mr Cameron returned to the site near the Bend Barracks, with the help of Henry Baillie, who was able to show him the exact tree where Spencer fell.
There, they erected a plaque in memory of Spencer Kineavy.
