The Three Lost Children Walk & Monument

Memorial cairn. grahamstewartwalker (Atlas Obscura User)

In the winter of 1867, William Graham, Thomas Graham, and Alfred Herbert Burman (aged 4, 5, and 7) went for an adventure in the Victorian bush near Daylesford. This area is packed with dense forests and sprawling grasslands, somewhere that would make a great area to adventure, but unfortunately, the young boys vanished.

Their disappearance caused a massive stir in the local community. The boy’s bodies were discovered three months later in a hollow tree trunk.

This memorial takes the form of a message tree, where visitors have left many messages written on fabric or pieces of paper. Some contain letters of hope, others mourn the loss of other missing children. Many toys have also been left nearby, alongside an inscribed seat and a memorial cairn.

Know Before You Go

There is adequate parking on the side of the road beside the memorial. For further information on the three lost boys you can visit the Daylesford museum. You can also walk on the nearby trail, which traverses through the dense forest that the boys would have adventured through many years ago.

memorials