1918 INFLUENZA KARORI CEMETERY PROJECT

More than 700 people succumbed to influenza in the Wellington region during November and December 1918, and many of them were buried in Karori Cemetery, Wellington, New Zealand. Their graves have been mostly untended and more or less lost from the collective memory. This 2-year project, which began in November 2016, is restoring and remembering those who died, cleaning and tidying their plots, cleaning their headstones, and researching the family histories in order to raise their profile for the centenary of the epidemic in November 2018.
 
If you would like to be part of this project
contact the Project Coordinator Barbara Mulligan
[email protected]
 
To be part of this project and follow our progress you can “like” our Facebook page, or ask to be added to our volunteer database to receive our newsletters and project updates and invites.

Inquiries from family members/ descendants are most welcome.

By the time the project is completed in November 2018 there will  be a digital story book to assist those visiting the cemetery to find their way around the sites.  Guided walks around the areas are scheduled in November 2018. There will also be more than 170 stories of those who died during the epidemic on this website. Details of the commemoration programme in November 2018 are here.