Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

 In Australia we are celebrating National Reconciliation Week which we assign increasingly great social importance to. I prepare this weeks blog in  Parramatta, Western Sydney, the land of the Burramattagal people of the Dharug nation. I acknowledge their traditions and culture and pay respect to their elders both past, present and emerging. This week's blog honours the life of an indigenous individual and I wish to warn those who may be culturally affected  that a photograph of this individual follows. Since the early times of the establishment of the European colony in NSW, government agencies, explorers, surveyors and members of the general public have called upon the tracking abilities of Indigenous men and women. The skills of trackers were drawn from bush and hunting knowledge held by Indigenous groups throughout NSW. A good tracker could pick up the smallest change in the landscape and quickly work out in which direction a person or animal was moving. The NSW Polic...

 It seems only fitting after the Federal Election results to showcase a woman who made a difference! After attending the Sydney Writers Festival in the past few days I was inspired to write a blog which relates to a woman who, together with many other things, championed women writers and inspired them to go forth and dream big. ZARA ARONSON Zara was born in Sydney in September 1864 to Moritz Baar, a merchant of Hanover and London, and his wife Zillah. Zara was taken to  Europe at three years of age and educated at Bradford Girls Grammar School, Yorkshire, England, and at Weisbaden, Germany. She returned to Sydney in 1879 and attended Mrs Morell's school. At the Great Synagogue on 25 October 1882 she married Frederick Aronson, a merchant and set up house in  Woollahra near her father, who at the time imported Indian and Chinese wares. Mrs Aronson became active in local charities and was a member of the committees of the Sydney Industrial Blind Institution amongst several o...

 I guess we are glad that we can see election day in sight after a long six week campaign.... Image from the Museum of Democracy at Old Parliament House With all this political talk it got me thinking about the Politicians who call Rookwood home. Throughout the Cemetery there would be thousands of people who took up the baton to effect change. Many Aldermen, Mayors, Members of the State Government of NSW and a smattering of those who represented the Nation are buried in the Necropolis particularly in the original 200 acres where it seemed many a businessman found his way to Council Chambers and then onto the State Government representing his electorate. Many were cremated and their ashes scattered in the Necropolis. Of the Politicians most are from the Left leaning variety befitting the area in which they lie, being mainly working class. There are a number of prominent woman as well. So to a little name dropping and we have John "Jack" Lang, Fred Daly, Sydney (Sid) Einfeld, A...

 Last Sunday was Mother's Day here in Australia and many other countries throughout the world. Today's blog is of a long forgotten woman, technically not a mother but who displayed the qualities we all admire in the definition of the word and proved to be a wonderful step mother to the young children of her deceased husband. LADY JULIA PARKES Julia Lynch, an Irish lass, was born in Country Cavan in 1871,  one of five children to Terence, a farmer, and his wife Margaret, and brought up in the Catholic religion. The family departed Ireland in 1888 and arrived in Brisbane aboard the "Jumna" on 13 October 1888. Julia made her way to Sydney around 1889 and was employed in the household of Cardinal Patrick Moran, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. It is said that Sir Henry Parkes was a guest at a dinner given by the Cardinal where she was waiting at table. Soon after she was employed as a maid at Kenilworth, his home, one the Gothic "witches houses" located in Joh...

  In the age of the changing face of "retail" it's nice to know that some things remain the same albeit slightly different in execution.   Many retail stores over the past 150+ years have been taken over by others or even disappeared. Names such as Hordern's, Farmers, Marcus Clark, Nock & Kirby, Ways, Gowings, Grace Bros., Buckinghams, Mark Foys, Beard Watson etc spring to mind.   The retail empire that I'm showcasing today, had a name now lost to history but the area where it once stood is still a retail hub and shortly to undergo a bit of a "spruce up".   Photo from City of Sydney collection  Let me introduce Bebarfalds and it's founder.... BARNET BEBARFALD Barnet was born in Prussia in 1831, one of seven children to Myer and Sophia. The family left the country and moved to England residing in Middlesex during the time of the 1851 census. Myer was listed as a cap maker and Barnet, now twenty years of age, a cigar maker.   It...