In 1998, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Rotary in Dunedin, and the 150th Anniversary of Otago-Southland province, two "inscribed rocks" were erected near the gate to the Northern Cemetery. The Town and Country Committee conceived and developed the idea of the memorial to Thomas Bracken incorporating the poets original words, in English and Maori, for the New Zealand National Anthem. The City Affairs committee, working in parallel, designed and installed signs to enable visitors to easily find Brackens grave.Recently David Mehrtens, son of former member Geoff Mehrtens and ex Dunedin North Rotarian, was visiting the cemetery and recalled that his father had been involved in the project 25 years ago. He noticed that moss and lichen was beginning to obscure the inscriptions, and as a representative for "Wet and Forget" he offered to donate product and to loan sprayers etc if Rotary could provide 2 or 3 members to help him give them a tidy-up.
So on Saturday, five members of the Community Projects group spent two hours applying an initial spray to the two memorials, three "waypoint" markers, the grave itself, a "Trees For Babies" plaque found almost hidden at the edge of plantings done in 2010, and the grave of an ancestor of a random stranger who agreed to take a group photo for us!
