Taphophile Tragics # 36

Point Clare Cemetery, maintained and controlled by Gosford City Council about an hour and a bit north of Sydney, would have to be the most organised cemetery I have ever meandered. Not only are there two large maps, one of them being at the entrance, seen here, but there are also stumpy black markers on all the Sections and Rows. I was looking for Anglican Section 8, Row 1, Lots 3 & 4. My own Taphophile post will spin you the yarn.

Point Clare Cemetery 'serves' a working class area, that must be predomninantly Protestant going on the allocation of the Sections among the religions. It has a most beautiful location, backing into the bush as it does, with the clear call of the Bell Bird resounding across the grounds. It also has not one, but three, sections labelled 'Still Born'. I will come to this in the weeks ahead - and promise to give you plenty of warning.

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Welcome to the 36th 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 9:30pm 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 # 35

These are the main gates to the Gore Hill Cemetery in the northern suburbs of Sydney. Originally dedicated in May 1868, the cemetery covers just under 6 hectares. The first known burial was in 1877, but there are monuments dated earlier than this that were transferred from the Devonshire Sandhills Cemetery when the land that cemetery occupied was reused as Central Station. Gore Hill Cemetery was closed to burials in 1974. The cemetery was declared an historic site in 1984, and is listed on the State Heritage Registry. There is a Memorial Wall that is still in use for the depositon of ashes.

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Welcome to the 35th 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 9:30pm 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 # 34

Many of the cemeteries that I haunt have imposing entries, usually with brick gate-posts and an ornate wrought iron double entry gate for vehicles, and a side-gate for pedestrians. Today, I showcase the formal entry to Waverley Cemetery in Sydney. There are more exits than entries, with the entries up the top of the hill, and the exits down the bottom. Make of that what you will!

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Welcome to the 34th 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 9:30pm 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 # 33

As I meander the headstones, I am seeing more and more of these plaques. Frequently, they are erected by descendents of 'fleeters', but not exclusively. However, they ARE left by descendents who are proud of their forbears and who wish to pay homage to their efforts and their grit.

The plaque for John Hill was erected in Camperdown Cemetery, beside a heavily weathered stone where one could JUST make out his name. He was done for having a counterfeit note in his pocket, and given 14 years for his troubles. He was 38 and left behind a wife with 6 children ranging in age from 11 to 1. All up, he married four times, but ... he was buried by his eldest son.

Rebecca Oakes was born Small, the daughter of two First Fleeters, born the year after the colony was founded. Rebecca married Francis Oakes, and bore him 14 children, Samuel died at birth, and Lucy died aged 9. That is a much lower proportion than I have seen in many other families. Rebecca's father died in 1850,aged 88, the last remaining FFer to die in the colony. Rebecca became a 'grande dame' of early Parramatta and is interred at Rookwood'

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Welcome to the 33rd 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 9:30pm 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 # 32

Sometimes the expressions 'Never forgotten' and 'Always in our hearts' can be self-mocking, when one wanders around cemeteries. Of course, they are not, necessarily negated, just because a Resting Place appears uncared for. However, memory is often a treasured facility. Take this memorial out in Rookwood Necropolis in Section 12 of the Old Anglican section. Just general, rather than heritage.

This young lad, Leonard Madden, died in 1938 aged 10, meaning he was born in 1928. The headstone was dedicated by his parents and grandparents. Had Lennie lived, he would have been 84 this year. Making his parents about 110 and his grandparents about 135. So, who is replenishing these, admittedly fake, flowers. Even fake don't last forever.

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Welcome to the 32nd 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 9:30pm 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 # 31

This symbol was on a memorial in Rookwood Necropolis for Francis Burdett Dixon, who was the President of the Trades & Labour Council of NSW. He died in April 1884, and is interred in the Old Anglican section of the cemetery. He was only 48 and died of lung disease. He had been a stone mason, as was his father before him. Not only was he the President of the Council, but he had been instrumental in establishing it. He has a long entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

What I do not know, though, is just what this tied bundle of sticks symbolises. I do not think it is a form of 'fasces'.

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Welcome to the 31st 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 9:30pm 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 # 30

The Hand of God, Rookwood Necropolis

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Welcome to the 30th 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 9:30pm 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.