As our community continues to mourn the loss of Corey Pethebridge, a gesture made by a community member has transformed into something very special.

Corey was killed while riding his motorbike home on Wednesday 26 October on Abundance Road, Medowie.

In a public show of grief, friends of the Irrawang High School established an impromptu shrine on the side of the road to commemorate the life of Corey.

There has been recent concerns that this memorial would eventually need to be moved on from its current site.
Abundance Road resident, Bronwyn Flinn, lives across the road from the memorial and accident site, and decided she wanted to try and help.

With a simple post on social media, she offered to find someone to move fencing on her property and section off part of one of her paddocks to create a permanent memorial for Corey’s friends and family to come and sit and remember him.
Bronwyn also provided the use of a trailer to house Corey’s special items from his impromptu shrine until the memorial can be built.

Corey’s mother, Michelle Bennett, spoke with News Of The Area about the establishment of the permanent memorial for her son.

“The community has been so wonderful; we are just blown away by the support.”

“Corey was such a wonderful young man It just isn’t fair that we are all going through this, so it will be wonderful to have a special place to come together to remember him,” Michelle told News Of The Area.

A Medowie-based business, Extreme Fencing and Earthworx, has kicked off the generosity to make this memorial happen, and offered to supply and install appropriate fencing for the entire project.

The planning for ‘Corey’s Place’ has begun.
Friends and family of Corey, encouraged and boosted by the generosity of Trent and Justin from Extreme Fencing, are now calling on the community to come together to help them finish the memorial.

If you, or anyone you know, can assist with bench seats, garden bed materials, the purchase of a plaque/memorial stone, material to build a small bridge across the water causeway along the roadside, and possibly some sort of overhead shelter, please get in contact with Chris Garn on 0423071288 or Alby Bennett on 0400356808.

Alternatively offers of support via email can passed to the family through News Of The Area at rach@newsofthearea.com.au.

By Rachael VAUGHAN