Taphophile Tragics # 25

My heart was pounding in my chest, my mouth parched. I had my research clutched in my hand as I entered Kew Cemetery. Would today be any more successful than the day before at Springvale Botannical? A headstone. A headstone. My kingdom for a headstone.

Yes, I had found the resting place of my great-grandfather's sisters, Mary Louisa and Emma Kezia, but beneath grass, sans headstone. What did Kew have to divulge to me for the resting place of my great-great-grandparents, John Dunstan Tonkin and Jane Forrest Gibson? Passing into the Independent A section, my eyes search for graves 888 and 889 ...

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Welcome to the 25th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 8:30pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 10pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 24

I am now a 'Friend of Rookwood'. This is a group of volunteers who, on the first Sunday of the month, conduct themed tours of the necropolis. Thus far, I have been on the 'History Tour 1', and 'Convicts'. The June tour, which I gave a miss due to the rain and handling a camera AND a walking stick, was on the theme 'Ships & Shipwrecks'. There is another on 'Plague & Pestilence'. The Rookwood Necropolis Open Day is Sunday 23 September. Put it in your diary!

This is Jane who is a really well-informed tour-guide (no, we don't call them docents!) with a dry wit! She rests upon the resting place of three of the sons of our first Post-Master, Isaac Nichols. They weren't convicts - but he was!

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Welcome to the 24th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 9:30pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 10pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 23

The Trustee of the Catholic Section of Rookwood Necropolis, has erected self-tour signage throughout the Old Catholic area. I would have totally missed this otherwise!

This statue of Mary is standing on a globe of the world, and around her feet is entwined a snake eating an apple. Pretty simple symbolism to understand, but not to SEE! The serpent represents Satan, a very subtle enemy. The apple is the 'forbidden fruit' symbolising Sin. The figure of Mary represents the dignity of the human body, that gives hope, faith, and love to the people of the world.

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Welcome to the 23rd week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 10pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 22

Here is another form of rest house in the Rookwood Necropolis. I showed you two, simpler, variations last week. This is officially called the 'Ornamental Rest House' which was built in 1901 in the Old Anglican Section. Being Australians, we don't truck with plebian names like 'Ornamental Rest House' and this eventually earned the moniker, 'Elephant House' because it reminded someone of the elephant house in Taronga Zoo. Duh!

It is undergoing restoration, and is the centrepiece for an evolving ceremony of community inclusion called 'Living with our Dead', which held a Dusk Ceremony in the Elephant House this weekend just past. Living with our Dead is a project that fosters individual and community artistic expression, placing death as a significant part of life. The projects encourage personal and idiosyncratic expressions of how we live with our dead, and through this, to understand what living with our dead may offer us as individuals and communities.

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Welcome to the 22nd week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 10pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 21

Rookwood Necropolis has many heritage areas, and the Old Anglican section is one such. Here are two of the recently restored 'rest houses' for those visiting the necropolis. They are not toilets, but places to escape the heat and prying eyes.

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Welcome to the 21st week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 10pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 20

Sheep appear to figure highly in Christian mythology: lamb of God that takest away; the Good Shepherd tending his flock. There are bound to be more, of which I am blissfully unaware.

However, this ewe is not that trusting of the Good Shepherd, with that wild-eyed stare, and one ear wrapped firmly around his staff. This is, once again, over in Waverley Cemetery, the cemetery that sits atop the slope overlooking Bondi Beach and the Pacific Ocean.

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Welcome to the 20th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 10pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 19

In a quiet chapel in North Sydney, surrounded by commercial high-rise, a stone's throw from the harbour bridge, and within cooee of the busy 'High Street', lies the tomb of Mary MacKillop, Mother Mary of the Cross, the foundress of The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Born in 1842 in Melbourne, Mary died in 1909 in North Sydney. She was beatified in 1995, and was entered in the pantheon of Roman Catholic saints in 2010 at Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.

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Welcome to the 19th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general.

This week, Mr Linky opens at 10pm Sunday, Sydney time (GMT+10) instead of the usual Monday, because the Tuesday being the first of the month, it is the City Daily Photo Bloggers 'Theme Day', so my allegiances are compromised!!

When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 18

Let me introduce you to QR codes. I thank Gene from Oakland for alerting me to them. They were all over the media last week, even here in Australia. However, in my usual head-in-the-sand way, I went blithely on my ignorant way, until Gene's comment.

A Quick Response code is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode first designed for the automotive industry. Now, the system has become popular because of its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. The code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square pattern on a white background. Here are some examples:



However, what if a QR code were attached to a headstone ... would that help us keep in touch ... but perhaps watch the video ...

Taphophile Tragics # 17

Last week I showed you a pair of Kohanin Hands from Rookwood. This week I am still in Rookwood but over on the Lidcombe side were the very first interments were made in 1867. I am a beginner at this funerary symbolism lark, but I am going from lists of symbols freely available via Google.

The wreath is a symbol of eternal life, with no beginning and with no end. The crown indicates victory, that is, triumph over death. But why angels? Do angels escort us on our journey to the Promised Land? And why two of them? And why are their eyes closed? And are their fingers pointing upward to the one true God in Heaven?

Any ideas?

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Welcome to the 17th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

We are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 16

This funerary symbol can be found in the old Jewish area of Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney, just off Necropolis Drive, close to the intersection with William Lane. This is a Jewish symbol known as Kohanin, representing the members of the priestly tribe of Aaron. There are a range of spellings, eg Cohn, and Cohen. Hands in this formation are a priestly blessing. This symbol was adapted for use in 'Star Trek' where it became the Vulcan salute, meaning 'live long and prosper'. However, in this use, it was single handed.

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Welcome to the 16th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

So we are continuing with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

Taphophile Tragics # 15

Pukumani poles mark the burial sites of the Tiwi people of the Bathurst and Melville Islands. They are erected at the beginning of a long funeral ceremony known as the Pukumani ceremony. These poles are on display at the Australian Museum in College Street, Sydney, and have been acquired over the years from the islands, which are part of the Northern Territory. Ranging in height from 100 cm to 250 cm, the poles are sculpted and painted with a mixture of natural ochres and brightly coloured synthetic pigments.They are also called funerary poles, grave posts or 'tutini' in the local Torres Strait Island language.

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Welcome to the 15th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

I had a good experience with a different Linky over the weekend, so have changed Taphophile Tragics over to this new method. However, I have not implemented the 'random' facility, because, although fair, I found it tedious when trying to work out who to visit next. However, I am open to listening to your opinion on the topic of the Linky and its implementation.

Taphophile Tragics # 14

Pause for a moment, and reread that inscription. HONOURABLE & DIGNIFIED & PRINCIPLED

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Welcome to the 14th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

Please note, this is the final week of daylight-saving in Sydney. Next week, although Mr Linky will still open at 10pm Monday Sydney time, this will translate to GMT+10.

Taphophile Tragics # 13

The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is the most visited public building in Australia. It is located in our national capital, Canberra. Within the AWM, is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, lying in the Hall of Memory. The first image is of the decorative interior dome of the Hall of Memory. The second image shows the Commemmorative Courtyard with the Pool of Reflection, and the Eternal Flame. The final image shows the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier itself.


The AWM says

"Plans for a tomb for an Australian unknown soldier were first put forward in the 1920s but it was not until 1993 that someone was at last brought home. With great reverence, the remains of an unknown Australian were removed from a cemetery in France in 1993 and transported to Australia. After lying in state in King’s Hall in Old Parliament House, he was interred in the Hall of Memory at the Memorial on 11 November 1993. The Unknown Australian Soldier was buried in a Tasmanian blackwood coffin, with a slouch hat and a sprig of wattle, and soil from the Pozières battlefield was scattered on his tomb. He represents all Australians who have been killed in war."

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Welcome to the 13th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

Taphophile Tragics # 12

Today, I take you way down to the southermost state of Australia, the island state of Tasmania. Tasmania housed one of the most brutal penal colonies on this earth, at Port Arthur, which is in the south-east of the state. On a small promontory just down from the Commandant's Cottage, is this singular grave. It is a memorial to the first Commandant of the penal colony, Charles O'Hara Booth (1800 - 1851) who was commandant from 1833 - 1840. He died of a heart attack at Newtown near Hobart. My understanding is that his body is not resting here, but I am not able to confirm that. Then, come with me to Sydney Eye, and take the short, blustery ferry trip out to the 'Isle of the Dead', where convict and freeman spend Eternity cheek by jowl.

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Welcome to the 12th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

Taphophile Tragics # 11

Funerary masons would have to be the most self-effacing tradies around.

This is the quality of lead I am working with: Hanson & Co. But I have others: Spurson, A E Anderson, H Johnson. All these are from my field trip through Waverley Cemetery last month. There were other names - like Charles Kinsela, and Walter Carter - but I know these to be undertakers not creators of funerary art.

There are so many gorgeous statues in Waverley Cemetery. There must be a clue to unlocking their secrets.

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Welcome to the 11th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs. Please link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

Taphophile Tragics # 10

She looks ... well ... almost angelic, as she coquettishly loiters within Waverley Cemetery. However, I have a suspicion that even angels, when they grow up, get into strife. On gossamer wings, glide on over to Sydney Eye to assess my evidence.

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Welcome to the tenth week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs. As you are surely all appreciating, a few of our number have meandered through burial grounds in wierd and wonderful places all around the globe.

Please link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday.

Taphophile Tragics # 9

W. Bayfield, Esq., wore his heart on his sleeve, thought I, before mentally squishing him beneath my grinding heel. That one's for you, Maud.

William John Bayfield was a mechanic who lived in Waverley, with his wife Louisa Maud, who performed 'home duties'. They married in 1926 when Maud was 44 already.

However, upon reflection, it occurred to me that there may be another meaning to amiable than that which is currently in use. I note it is related to the Latin 'amare' meaning 'to love' (amo, amare, amavi, amatum). Any ideas?

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Welcome to the ninth week of Taphophile Tragics.We welcomed a number of new contributors last week, and our numbers, to use twitterese, are trending. I spent an hour and a half walking Waverley Cemetery very early on Sunday morning. It would take more than a year of Sundays to do the place justice.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours.

Taphophile Tragics # 8

This grave marker is in Port Macquarie General Cemetery, which is on the side of a gently sloping hill. It is not the best maintained country cemetery I have wandered. The grass was badly in need of a mow, but they have suffered from a surfeit of rain for the last few weeks. Quite a few graves and their markers were showing wear and tare, not so much from vandalism, but the effects of wind and rain. Name plates tumbled down, fences off hinges, markers subsiding. But lots of stories within. I cover one such story in my own post this week.

What I did find remarkable in the Port cemetery, is the amount of inlaid tiling. There must have been a monumental mason who also held a tiling shop. It seemed to be one way of decorating the cemetery. Someone had also gone around with lots of plastic/silk flowers which were everywhere, even on markers erected during the late 19th early 20th centuries.

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Welcome to the eighth week of Taphophile Tragics. After a most traumatic week organising a nursing home for my brother who has suffered a stroke, I eventually managed to visit each post. I am loving this immense learning curve that I am on. Hope you are each on one, too.I can go into cemeteries now and see things that I would have overlooked just 8 weeks ago. I can draw links to other cemeteries, especially regarding style.

Please link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours.

Taphophile Tragics # 7

Graveyard, St Jude's, Randwick

Last week, CaT from Boston asked in her comment why this sort of exercise is called a 'meme'. With a shrug of my shoulders, I set to work finding an answer. In his 1989 book, 'The Selfish Gene', Richard Dawkins wrote (on page 192) 'We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'.' The French word même means 'same'. Dawkins was waffling on about biological replication, so it is important not to take OUR use of the expression too preciously. Although, it is possible to see some slight correlation of behaviour patterns: Memes spread through the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread and mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their host. Memes are equivalent to the musical variation upon a theme.

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Welcome to the seventh week of Taphophile Tragics. I knew I should not have mentioned numbers last week! Shall not do so again, says she gesturing skywards. However, your contributions are still magnificently detailed and diverse. They make engrossing reading. I continue to monitor the links daily, all week, and am managing to eventually visit everyone who posts. I appreciate each contribution, the effort put into researching, and especially the increasing equilibrium of image and text.

Please link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours.

Taphophile Tragics # 6

Being a frequenter of graveyards and cemeteries, it stands to reason that I am also heavily into family history.

In Taphophile Tragics # 2 , I showed you the resting place of one of my great great grand mothers. Now, if I am right - and as I work it out a bit like a tennis draw, there is a chance that I have the bull by the horns - each of us has 8 great great grand mothers and 8 GGGFs.

In TT2 I showed you the resting place of my paternal grandmother's grandmother on her father's side (stick with me!). Today, I will show you the resting place of my paternal grandmother's grandmother on her mother's side. I think. Phew!

Annie Faull died in Drummoyne in Sydney in 1929 and is buried in Rookwood Cemetery. Being folk of mean means, her grave is without a marker, but is mapped. I guess it does have a marker of a kind. She rests beneath that fulsome palm in the second photograph.

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Welcome to the sixth week of Taphophile Tragics. The meme is receivinbg 23 contributions per week. They are detailed and quite diverse. And fascinating to read! I monitor the links daily, all week, and am managing to visit everyone who posts. I appreciate your contribution and the effort put into researching.

Please link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. Mr Linky opens at 10pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+11). When you can, please visit the contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours.