These emerged the day after the accident and multiplied. Nearby, a black motorcycle helmet nailed to a post marked the scene of another fatality for many years before disappearing. Heavy equipment would be needed to remove some roadside memorials. On a desolate section of freeway outside the Victorian country town of Morwell, there are two grand monuments to those who have lost their lives on this high-speed section of road. The memorial to the teenage Bobbins sisters, erected by family and friends, features a boulder so large a small truck and crane must have been used to place it at the crash site.
Someone comes out regularly and mows the weeds.
A tree has been planted. Even in grief, cross-promotion is allowed. There are also a surprising number of memorials in Sydney, some with council blessing, some the result of spontaneous gestures. My favourite, officially approved, is that dedicated to a street-sweeper's bitzer dog at Balmoral Beach, partly because of the debate I imagine it must have caused at council meetings. He lived up the road and this was one of his favourite places.