Sever al people were scouring the grave sites mid-afternoon yesterday to see if their family’s memorials had been affected.

Some were relieved to find relatives’ graves unaffected but sisters Helen Vyner and Sue Rice, from Wodonga, were devastated to see the headstones on graves of their great uncles, aunts and cousins — the Ryans of Wallendool — had been shattered, presumably by iron bars and bricks that were found nearby.

The sisters were trying to piece together the jigsaw puzzle that their ancestors’ tombstones had become.

“It’s disgusting, what do people think when they are doing this?” Ms Vyner said.

“This is part of Australia’s heritage and it’s never going to be the same again.

“It will cost a fortune to have it replaced.

“It’s heartbreaking, we don’t know what to do. If we put it all back together they could come along and wreck it again.

“Do we have to take (the tombstones) home?”

The sisters had just last week taken photos of the graves to put into a family tree publication and were referring to those images to piece together the tombstones.

More descendants of the Ryans, based in Sydney, had been due to travel to the Border to inspect the cemetery to learn about their family’s history but that visit is now in jeopardy.

Ms Vyner said action was needed to help protect the 160-year-old cemetery.

“I don’t know what can be done, lighting’s an option but maybe having huge fines could be the best thing to do,” she said.

A group of children, some aged as young as 11, were seen attacking the grave sites just before 3pm on Friday.

The cisterns in a nearby toilet block were also damaged, with vandals using bits of the broken headstones to break the toilets.

Ms Rice said ultimate responsibility for the children’s behaviour rested with the parents.

“Where are the parents? That’s all I can say,” she said.

“If it was my kids I would kick their bum and make them clean it up.”