A memorial to the sailors who died when the SS Ventnor sank off Northland's west coast - and the hundreds of Chinese gold miners whose bodies went down with the ship - could be built at Rawene cemetery.
When the ship sank off Hokianga Heads in 1902 it was carrying 13 crew and the remains of 499 exhumed miners who were supposed to be returned to their home villages for burial, in accordance with Chinese tradition. Instead their remains ended up on the bottom of the Tasman Sea or washed up along the west coast.
Bones that washed up were gathered by Maori and buried alongside their own dead. According to oral tradition many were buried in Rawene cemetery, at the corner of Parnell and De Thierry streets opposite the hospital.
Memorials to the miners and those who took care of their remains have already been erected at Mitimiti and Waipoua - a Chinese gate and a plaque, respectively - but the Rawene memorial would be on a larger scale.
Liu Sheung Wong, a Rawene resident who revived interest in the Ventnor story several years ago, said a simple plaque was planned at first but that changed with the discovery in mid-2016 of the names of all 499 miners.