Community & Business
21 September, 2023
Missing family plaque replaced
A COMMEMORATIVE family plaque recognising one of Mareeba’s most well-known families that went missing, has been replaced after efforts from the family.
On the banks of Emerald Creek on the Mareeba side of the Emerald Creek bridge lies a monument recognising the first pioneers to the area, including the Srhoj family.
These pioneers were proud to call Australia home. Those that came to Emerald Creek and surrounding land were immigrants from many countries across the world.
As the pioneer plaque states “these families worked hard to make Emerald Creek the thriving area it is today”.
One family, the Srhoj family, descendants of Emerald Creek pioneers hold family reunions every five years with relatives coming from all over Australia, New Zealand and Croatia.
At one such reunion held in Mareeba in 2006, a commemorative plaque was mounted under the pioneer plaque to honour the first Srhoj pioneers to the area – brothers Filip and Vlado Srhoj and their wives Sarah and Lina.
Mysteriously, years later the family plaque went missing. But recently brothers Max and Stephen Srhoj with their cousin Tito, all children of the first pioneers, got a new plaque made honouring the names of their fathers and mothers and mounted it back onto the monument.
