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Members of Clinton Duroux’s extended family travelled considerable distances to gather with local supporters and Tenterfield Shire Council officers in Tenterfield’s Millbrook Park on Thursday to break ground on a memorial for the murdered 16-year-old.
Clinton and two other indigenous children were killed under similar circumstances in Bowraville in 1990, and their families are still struggling to see the murderer brought to justice. The state attorney recently approved an application from NSW Police to take the case of the unsolved killings back to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. (See Tenterfield Star, June 1.)
The memorial site is in an ideal location according to Dolly Jerome, an aunt of Clinton’s or ‘Bubba’ as he was known.
“I can look down the park and clearly remember Bubba doing back flips off that bridge (on the Rouse St boundary of Millbrook Park) into Tenterfield Creek,” she said.
“We’re finally getting something done for Bubba. It helps us heal, but it’s not closing the book. That won’t happen as long as we breathe.
“We may or may not get justice, but this is a positive way of dealing with it, and it will be wonderful as a stopover for the mobs travelling through this country.”
Clinton’s relatives expressed their gratitude to the council for making the plot available, and to Alan Taylor who is assisting with the design and construction of a gazebo that will sit on the location, surrounding a memorial plaque and looking down over Millbrook Park from its elevated position.
Strategic planning and environmental services director James Ruprai spoke on behalf of council at the groundbreaking ceremony, expressing the council’s complete support of the project.
“The memorial’s in a position to complement and be complemented by the existing park, and it’s a good building site,” he said.
Archie Tanner of NSW Aboriginal Affairs said it was the persistent never-give-up attitude of the family that had got them this far through the legal process. The first memorial for the children was established in Bowraville and the Tenterfield installation will be the third of five planned memorials.
“The families feel the hurt and the pain every day,” Mr Tanner said.