Lock Hospital Centennial Ceremony – Wednesday 9th January 2019 (Carnarvon)
Posted: December 20th, 2018
The Bernier and Dorre Island Lock Hospitals is a shocking part of WA’s history. Between 1908 and 1919, several hundred Aboriginal people from across WA were forcibly removed from their family and country to these lock hospitals via Carnarvon. Many of those family members who were separated during the lock hospital scheme never saw each other again. It’s conservatively estimated that more than 200 people died on the islands.
On Wednesday, 9 January 2019, a Centennial Ceremony will be held at Carnarvon’s One Mile Jetty Café at 3pm. The ceremony will remember and recognise the story, and history of the Bernier and Dorre Island Lock Hospital tragedy.
The State Government and the Shire of Carnarvon have provided funding for a bronze sculpture to acknowledge the centennial anniversary of the last person to be repatriated from the Lock Hospitals, off the coast of Carnarvon. The sculpture will be unveiled at a separate event in 2019.
For more information about the Lock Hospital tragedy click here or to download a PDF about the Lock Hospital tragedy click here.