Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

  It's New Year's Eve so let's reflect on who has been revealed in Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries in 2023. The year has been filled with many published blogs about people who chose a life of service helping others as well as those who chose not to; tragedies that were heartbreaking and secrets and scandals that shocked us. A view of the Old Catholic section - author's own collection  My most popular blog was the one devoted to Lucy Farrow, mother of John Villiers Farrow, Hollywood producer and film maker and grandmother of Mia Farrow. The next most popular was that of the murder of Leticia Frances Cavanagh and followed by the Banka ferry disaster and slaughter of innocents. You also liked the story of the "bad" mother of Macdonaldtown, Sarah Makin. Henry Shiell, the City Coroner, was a popular read as was one about the secrets and scandals found in Section One of the Old Anglican Section. It seems I will need to find more titillating material to engage ...

  Many people lie in Rookwood the victims of tragic life ending events. Some died alone, others were one of a significant number who also called time at the same event. There are many who were victims of rail disasters; ironically a public transport system that revolutionized the tyranny of distance and was a boon for people and goods movement. Today I will focus on an event that occurred on the 31st of October 1894. THE REDFERN RAIL DISASTER. On Wednesday October 31, 1894, the train stations along the western Sydney line were full of commuters, mainly males, heading to their places of employment either in the CBD or outer suburbs and trains ran one after the other within minutes. A commuter train from Strathfield that ran through Ashfield on the fast line prior to 9.30am was proceeding along as usual until just as it was reaching the signal-box above Redfern Station when it collided with the Southern train heading for Goulburn departing from platform 6. The suburban train ...