The Bundanoon
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Nancy Kingsbury Memorial Park
Anzac Parade
A memorial to Nancy Kingsbury
The Park honours Nancy Kingsbury. It is the size of a suburban house block, adjacent to the police station and backing onto the railway line.
Nancy Kingsbury
Nancy Kingsbury was born in Sydney on 11 August 1925. She was the daughter of William and Minnie Beatrice Kingsbury.
Around the age of three Nancy developed asthma and by the time she was six doctors had recommended a change of climate so the family decided to spend some time in Bundanoon where the air was healthier. Nancy and her sister Jean attended the Bundanoon Public school but Nancy was often away with asthma.
Nancy survived childhood and in 1955 she married Colin Charles Blows. With Nancy’s deteriorating health, they moved to Forster for its warmer climate and, sadly, she died there from an asthma attack on Mothers’ Day in May, 1960. She is buried in Forster.
William Kingsbury
Before moving to Bundanoon, William Kingsbury lived in Sydney and was a builder. In 1931, during the Depression, building work was hard to find in Sydney so the family decided to rent a cottage in Gullies Road for six weeks. They extended their stay and eventually sold their house in Sydney and bought a home in Railway Parade.
William started a taxi service using his own car and then expanded to include more cars. He had a 1935/36 Dodge, and a Chevrolet taxi cab. He delivered tourists to guest houses and drove people to the coast for excursions.
A Daughter Lost
William was devastated at his daughter’s death especially as Jean, his surviving daughter, married the same year. He felt that he had “lost” two daughters. William Kingsbury bought the land that is now the Memorial Park believing that it was an ideal site for an expanded shopping centre but after Nancy died, he generously gifted the land to the Council for the people of Bundanoon to use as a park, feeling that this was his way of having a part of Nancy in Bundanoon forever.
A Park is Born
The Moss Vale Post reported in 1970 that the Park was to be one of the main projects for completion by the Bundanoon District Community Association (BDCA), now the Bundanoon Community Association (BCA), who used $200 of their own funds, with a further $100 donated by the Kingsbury family. Mr Cosgrove, the Council Gardener, had planted trees in the Park. For many years Margaret Murty had tended the Park, but in June 2001 the Bundanoon Garden Club adopted Nancy Kingsbury Memorial Park as an ongoing project. Seeding grants came from both the Wingecarribee Shire Council (WSC) and the BDCA. The Garden Club raised money with fundraising stalls and a progressive dinner.
The 26th November 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the actual founding of the Bundanoon Garden Club. As one of the events to mark this occasion, the Club officially inaugurated a new metal seat around one of the trees at the far end of the Park. The seat was made by a local firm, Sherwood Engineering, and paid for with a grant from the Wingecarribee Shire Council and the Bundanoon Community Association.
The Park is a very special community place where people can meet and relax, children can play and picnics can be enjoyed.