CONTENT WARNING: This story features the names and pictures of a person who has died. Reader discretion is advised.
The Cherbourg community has lost one of its oldest inhabitants in Eva Collins, who in over 90 years on Wakka Wakka country helped to raise numerous generations of locals all while shaping the town’s transition away from government oversight.
Ms Collins was born on Christmas Eve 1922 and died in Cherbourg on 30 August 2025. The 102-year-old spent 92 years in Cherbourg after being removed from Charleville to the then-Barambah Aboriginal Settlement in 1932.
Growing up in Cherbourg Ms Collins faced harsh oppression by the Queensland Government of the day, being made to work at the town’s hospital where she served as a nursing assistant and midwife.
In her later years she received an appointment to act as supervisor of the Cherbourg Girls’ Dormitory – the place she herself was forced to stay in during her youth.
For her efforts in bringing kindness and dignity to the dorm’s young inmates during the system’s final years Ms Collins received an Imperial Service Medal in 1979.
Ms Collins also acted as one of Cherbourg’s first politicians, sitting on the inaugural Cherbourg Community Council from 1973 to 1979. The CCC would eventually become the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council of today, which is able to make its own decisions free from government oversight.
Eva Collins has served as a Justice of the Peace advocating for fair treatment of Indigenous Australians at court, took on a leading role in the Cherbourg Welfare Association, and also contributed to the Cherbourg Country Women’s Association.
For the past several years leading up to her death Ms Collins lived at Cherbourg’s Ny-Ku Byun Elders Village, looking back fondly on her many decades spent in the community.
“What I like most about Cherbourg is the friendship,” Ms Collins said about her hometown.
Her funeral notice describes the community stalwart as a strong influence on five generations of her direct descendants as well as an auntie to many others, earning her the moniker of Cherbourg’s ‘matriarch’.
“Nan Eva’s influence went far beyond titles or roles,” a spokesperson for the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council said in announcing Ms Collins’ death.
“She mentored and supported young women, many of whom stayed in touch with her for decades – returning to celebrate her milestones as a mark of enduring love and respect.
“She was a beacon of selflessness and faith, known for urging others to ‘be kind, be respectful, be a good person.’
“May her memory and example continue to guide us into the future.”
Cherbourg will hold a celebration of Ms Collins’ life at the town’s AIM Church on Friday 12 September.
Her funeral service will begin at 10:30am, followed by an interment ceremony at the Cherbourg Cemetery afterwards.
