When a loved one goes missing, often suddenly and without explanation, the emotional and traumatic impact their disappearance has on their friends and family can be profound.

Fear, sadness, uncertainty, frustration, helplessness, and even guilt, anger, and blame, manifest themselves over hours, days, weeks, months, and years, as they longingly await news of their mother, father, step-parent, grandparent, brother, sister, cousin, son or daughter, or acquaintance, while their absence continues to linger, never abating.

In Australia, police receive more than 50000 reports of missing persons each year.

While many are located shortly afterwards, almost 3000 remain missing, becoming categorised as long-term disappearances and subsequently, and sadly in some instances, cold cases as time stretches on.

It is a tragic circumstance which Sally Leydon is all too familiar with.

The daughter of long-term missing woman Marion Barter, who disappeared without explanation 28 years ago, has endured a long, stressful, and lonely journey while trying to find her and understand what has happened to her.

In February 2024, NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan ruled Ms Barter died on or around October 15, 1997, the day $80000 was electronically transferred out of her bank account.

She has never been seen or heard from since.

In May 2025, Ms Leydon launched a podcast titled The Missing Matter as she continued the search for her mother following the inquest, while helping other families understand the processes involved in long-term missing persons cases.

More recently, she launched The Green Seat Project in honour of her missing mother, to help raise awareness of other missing Australians and ensure they are never forgotten.

In the following months, The Green Seat Project has gained the support of tens of thousands of people across the country and seeks to install green bench seats displaying the words ‘The Missing Matter’ in prominent public spaces around Australia to encourage community conversations about long-term missing persons.

Each green bench seat also features a QR code which links visitors to information about missing persons and available support services to assist families affected by the sudden and unexplained disappearance of a loved one.

After delivering a powerful and heartfelt Deputation on The Missing Matter and The Green Seat Project while detailing her mother’s disappearance to Clarence Valley Councillors prior to the Ordinary Monthly Meeting of Clarence Valley Council (CVC) on March 19, Ms Leydon said she was ecstatic and overflowing with gratitude when a Notice of Motion (NoM) put forward by Councillor Debrah Novak proposing Council support the installation of two green bench seats in the Clarence Valley as part of the community awareness initiative and provide a report to Council no later than April highlighting the cost and availability of funds to support their installation was carried unanimously.

An amendment by Councillor Karen Toms to include the locations where the green bench seats will be installed was accepted by Cr Novak prior to councillors voting.

“There are 24 missing or murdered loved ones connected to the Clarence Valley region, all of whom form part of the current NSW Parliamentary Inquiry,” Ms Leydon revealed.

“My mum is one of them.

“One of her last known digital footprints places her at OPSM in Grafton ShoppingWorld, using her Medicare card just 11 days after her passport returned through Brisbane Airport on August 2, 1997.

“With almost 29 years of lived experience navigating the trauma of having a missing loved one, I now advocate for families who need a voice, support, and a place to remember them.

“The Green Seat Project gives them that place.”

Ms Leydon, who resides in Brisbane, told the Clarence Valley Independent it was amazing to see the NoM tabled by Cr Novak receive the unanimous support of Council, adding she was also grateful to Cr Toms for her earlier amendment.

“It has been such a big rollercoaster for myself and my family, and all the people who are missing loved ones across Australia,” she said.

“In launching The Missing Matter and The Green Seat Project, which personally honours my mum, as green was her favourite colour, I wanted to put my hand up and speak for them and to help raise awareness of how their lives have been impacted.

“But it is also important that we don’t forget the missing, and that we give people a chance to stop and think about them, because they matter, and so do their friends and families who are left wondering what happened to them.”

Describing Ms Leydon’s Deputation as “powerful”, Cr Novak said in tabling her NoM, the installation of two green bench seats in the Clarence Valley would provide a permanent acknowledgment that missing persons and the families and friends who continue to search for answers surrounding their disappearance matter.

Cr Novak said their installation would also provide locals and visitors to the region with places to sit and reflect while raising awareness of missing persons and encouraging community conversations.

“This idea (The Green Seat Project) comes from Sally because of her deep, personal loss,” she explained.

“And she was looking to do something positive for not only herself but for a lot of other people who are impacted by losing loved ones.”

Cr Toms and CVC Deputy Mayor Greg Clancy also spoke in favour of Cr Novak’s NoM, with the Deputy Mayor reiterating the importance of ensuring the green bench seats are installed in appropriate locations within the Clarence Valley.

Council staff will provide a report to Councillors before the next Ordinary Monthly Meeting of Council in April, highlighting the cost and availability of funds to support the installation of two green bench seats.

Ms Leydon expressed her sincere gratitude to Cr Novak for putting forward the NoM last week and to her friend Jo Greensill of Grafton, who also made a Deputation in support of Ms Leydon, while sharing the story of her friend Andrew Inglis, who vanished in Yamba in 1985 and has not been seen or heard from since.

For further information, please visit www.themissingmatter.com/the-green-seat-project.

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 27 March 2026.