Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

Last Friday was Australia Day and we are a nation of immigrants, (with the exception of First Nations people the custodians of the island), in a country we call "home". Many immigrants have progressed from rags to riches and there are many to choose from.  Today's blog relates to a man who came to this country and attempted to assimilate and smooth over many of the troubles with his heritage and living in Australia at the time. MEI QUONG TART Mei or Quong as he was widely known was born in in a village of the Guangdong province of China in 1850. At the age of 9 he was sent to Australia to accompany his uncle who was bringing a team of Chinese workers to work in the goldfields in the area of Braidwood and Araluen NSW. In Braidwood he lived with Thomas Forsyth, a Scot, who ran a store at Bell's Creek. Later he was taken in by the wealthy family of Robert Simpson and his wife, Alice, nee Want, who were charmed by the lad's Scottish accent!  Under their tutelage he le...

 Summer in Australia and it's the right time for a cooling gin and tonic and in winter there is nothing more cosy than a blanket made of alpaca wool. Today's blog is about a man who is associated with both these things. CHARLES LEDGER Charles was born in March 1818 in Bucklesbury, east London, the son of George Ledger, a mercantile broker, and his wife Charlotte. In 1836 he set sail for Peru and became a clerk in the British merchant's office in Lima. Whilst there he rescued a drowning native Manuel Mamani who offered to become Ledger's servant for saving his life. In 1848 Ledger began to breed alpacas and by 1850 he became interested in supplying alpacas to the colony of NSW in the hope that the introduction of these animals would be as successful as the merino sheep industry. He visited Sydney in 1853 and conferred with Governor FitzRoy and others who confirmed that it was a viable concern, and it was later claimed by Ledger that he had been promised a grant of 10,000...

  One of the larger Mausoleums, or now more commonly known as a Vault, is the one in the old Presbyterian area of the Necropolis for the family of John Paul. John Paul Vault - find a grave - with thanks.  So, who was the person and his family that command such a large, albeit a little disheveled and worn looking vault? It seems there was money in shipping goods. JOHN PAUL          John was born in 1839 and arrived as a free settler, a young single man. He had shipping in his blood and set up a business in the Darling Harbour area with Charles John Potts and marketed it as “ Potts and Paul Ships Chandler and Provision Agents” from about 1863. The area was one of rapid expansion, the busiest part of the Harbour and the centre of shipping business in the port of Sydney. He married Helen Carmichael in September 1868 and together they went on to have six boys. At the time, although trains had first begun to operate in 1855, travel by ...

For the final "Tween" blog before I launch properly into blogs for 2024 regarding those who lie peacefully in Rookwood, I want to dwell on the plants and flowers and in particular the magnificent hardy roses that are so prevalent throughout the Necropolis. HOMAGE TO THE HARDY ROSES OF ROOKWOOD Charles Moore was the designer and person responsible for the layout of the ‘Victorian Garden Cemetery’. He designed avenues and included roundabouts for traffic to move swiftly throughout the initial part of the Necropolis. Moore's designs included the use of many traditional funerary utilised plants such as pine trees both at a low height or those that soared high and Indian hawthorn bushes. He also planted many fast-growing Australian native pines that would be used as markers for the cemetery from a distance. I won't go into any detail about Moore – that’s for a later date - but I want to reflect on the roses he planted and those that came later with the expansion of the C...