The Italian National Ossario, also known as the Murchison Ossario, is an
ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the ...
,
war cemetery
A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations.
Definition
The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...
and
war memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.
Symbolism
Historical usage
It has ...
in
Murchison, a town in the
Goulburn Valley
The Goulburn Valley is a sub-region, part of the Hume region of the Australian state of Victoria. The sub-region consists of those areas in the catchment of the Goulburn River and other nearby streams, and is part of the Murray-Darling Basin. T ...
region of Victoria, Australia. The ossario holds the remains of 130 Italians interned during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
Construction work on the monument started in 1958 and the monument was
consecrated in 1961. The ossuary was built from funds raised by local Italian communities in the Gouburn Valley with the fundraising effort led by Luigi Gigliotti. The ossario was designed by
Paolo Caccia Dominioni who also designed the El Alamein Italian mausoleum in Egypt.
The 130 people interned in the ossuary include 129 men and one woman. Both
prisoners of war sent to Australia as well as British and Australian residents of Italian descent interned as civilian
enemy aliens
In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured an ...
are buried there.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Italian National Ossario– Monument Australia
* {{Find a Grave cemetery, 2713623
World War II memorials in Australia
Italy in World War II
Italian diaspora
World War II cemeteries
Victorian Heritage Register
Victorian Heritage Register Hume (region)
City of Greater Shepparton