Australia, Queensland, Sunshine Coast at Bli Bli; The Finnish Memorial Park

On the Finland Rd at Bli Bli, at the Sunshine Coast, there is a park that would interest the Finnish immigrant population to Australia, if not all the immigrants to Australia. It is the Finnish Memorial Park, created by the Finnish cane cutter families that lived there during the times when cane was still cut at the Sunshine Coast.

It was about 17-years ago that I had last visited this place. Then it was just cane fields, but the place for the park had been selected and the organisers of the planned park were just getting to ordering the memorial sculpture. After much discussion they settled in inviting Martti Väänänen, a sculpturer from Kiiminki in Finland to create the memorial. The park itself was opened in 1997. At the same time it was also donated to the Council for upkeep.

The Finland Rd as such is a long and lumpy ride amongst the last cane fields at Sunshine Coast. Not much of them is left as the new suburbs are born across the coastline. However, it is a delight to suddenly end up in a small, well tendered park that makes one remember those people who came to Australia on ships, after spending weeks on the oceans, and months on the migration centers in the south and ending up in Queensland on the cane fields.

The Migration Museum at Peräseinäjoki in Finland, previously presented on this blog, carries matching information about the emigration of the Finnish people to around the world. I am hearing that more than million Finnish people live permanently abroad.

One of the highlights of the Finnish Migration Museum is the cane cutters cottage that was actually dissembled in Ingham, Queensland and sent to the Museum at Peräseinäjoki, where it was reassembled in a totally new surroundings to the delight of many people interested in the migration history of the people of the area.

The Finnish Memorial Park at Bli Bli carries on the delightful tradition of people building spaces for themselves where they can comfortably meet and have a picnic in memory of the times gone by. I, for one, can very well see this park as a functional meeting place for a family gathering, even a wedding as there is a kind of Finnish style pavilion included in the park just inviting dancing.

When choosing a place where people could meet at Sunshine Coast for a celebration, the Finnish Memorial Park is a good pick. It is well kept, secluded and spacious. See you there sometime on your travels.

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UK, Lewes, The Crimean War Memorial for the Finnish Prisoners

It was always my intention, while visiting UK to travel to Lewes and look for the Crimean War Memorial for the Finnish Prisoners who were brought there in 1854.

One of my most favorite moments at primary school was to sing the most famous Finnish war song from the Crimean War with the class. It was called 'Oolannin sota' (The War of Aland) and it was written by a war prisoner at the Lewes prison.

I took my son and his family with me to investigate Lewes. We had heard that the Obelisk we were looking for was in the old cemetery behind the St Paul's Church.




We had an interesting time trying to find our way to the cemetery as there were no signs or any information about the monument anywhere.




Finally we found our way through a near theatre car park and wound our way through the badly kept terrain and spied the monument we were looking for.







To me finding this obelisk was a curiosity. It had been ordained by the Russian Char, Alexander II in 1877 to commemorate the 28 Russian solders that had died during their imprisonment at Lewes. In 1957 the Soviet Government had paid to restore the obelisk.





I could see the names of the solders ingrained in the Obelisk. They were Finnish. I knew some of their stories from my research.

The Finnish prisoners had become quite a celebrity in Lewes and there were many articles written about them. They had made toys that were sold in order to provide some luxuries for them while at Lewes. Most of the solders returned home after the imprisonment in good health.



After the Crimean War, the British people collected money for Finland. They thought of Finland as a victim of the war rather than an active participant. The money that came to Finland as one of the many charitable acts that the Crimean War inspired was used to enhance the Finnish fishing fleets and ship building and finally to help the people after the famine during the 1860's.

Afterwards, I went to the Lewes Information Office asking about the obelisk. No-one at that office even knew of it's existence.

For the rest of the day, we had a wonderful time walking the streets of Lewes, shopping and having a lovely dinner at a Pizzeria.

We decided that next time we would spend more time there visiting the lovely castle and other interesting tourist destinations.

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