Digging a little deeper

Earlier this month, I had a delightfully unexpected and long overdue catch up with my aunty Moon, and my father at a local cafe. When rapport is easy and familiar, conversations have a habit of jumping quickly from subject to subject, and we found ourselves talking about graveyard real estate. My aunt mentioned she knew someone who had purchased one of the last remaining plots at the Melbourne General Cemetery, and I said we have ancestors buried there. She wanted to know who, so I regaled her with what I knew. On my walk home, I thought I should dig a little deeper …

Our conversation at the cafe started with my father saying, in future, he expects land reserved for cemetery use will be redeveloped for other purposes (particularly housing); I argued that we would redevelop existing land allotments first before needing to raze cemeteries. I could see before my mind’s eye the taphophiles (cemetery enthusiasts), established community groups like, Save Our Cemetery, genealogists, historians and heritage advocates rising up to save the cemetery sites that, over time, have developed historical and social significance.

The word cemetery comes from the Greek word ‘Koimeterion’ meaning ‘sleeping place’ and differs from the meaning of graveyard, which technically refers to the place of churchyard burials. Urban planning trends, sanitary requirements and the spatial limitations of churchyards paved the way towards development of large cemeteries on the outskirts of the village or town catering to all religious denominations and managed by trustees. John Claudius Loudon (1783-1843) a Scottish botanist whose prolific writings on horticulture, landscapes and urban design influenced cemetery designers and city planners, wrote, among other things, ‘Churchyards and cemeteries are scenes not only calculated to improve the morals and the taste, and by their botanical riches to cultivate the intellect, but they serve as historical records.’[1]  This quote from an 1843 treatise, ‘On the laying out, planting, and managing of cemeteries; and on the improvement of churchyard’ informed the future of cemeteries at the time and set many of the standards that we are accustomed to today.

Excerpt Robert Hoddle Survey, 1837

The repurposing of cemeteries is not without precedent. Many cemeteries are reused over time in Europe. In Melbourne, the Queen Victoria Market car park sits on top of the first settler cemetery in Victoria. The original land reservation for the burial site was surveyed by Robert Hoddle in 1837 (as illustrated above) with the first burial taking place in same year. The four hectare site is bounded by Franklin Street in the south, Peel Street in the west, Queen St to the east and Fulton St in the north (since absorbed into the Vic Market demarcated by the edge of Shed D). Within sixteen years, with thanks to the discovery of gold, population growth and city development, Melbourne had outgrown its first cemetery. New land was reserved for cemetery purposes in Parkville/Carlton called the Melbourne General Cemetery, prompting the official closure of the old Melbourne cemetery.  A photograph taken in 1900 showing headstones and grave fencing in overgrown scrubby bush land amply illustrated the neglect of the old cemetery and why Melbourne City Council was keen to make use of the land, no matter how controversial or resistant the public would be for redeveloping Melbourne’s first settler-colonial burial ground.[2]

Old Melbourne Cemetery c.1900 RHSV Collection

Our cafe discussion on the reuse of existing cemetery land missed a vital point related to Victoria’s legislation and that is the right of interment in perpetuity.[3]  Currently, Victoria’s legislation under the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act 2003 and Cemeteries and Crematoria Regulations 2025 grants unlimited tenure of burial. This is not the case Australia wide, of note, South Australia and Western Australia have limited tenure, NSW has options for renewable or in perpetuity interment, QLD has no state-wide standalone legislation having delegated responsibility to councils. 

There are reports that Australian cities are running out of burial spaces even though only a third of the deceased in Australia are buried annually[4].  South Australia is held up as the future benchmark as they are prepared to demolish cemeteries (graves and headstones) and recycle the land for new burials, unless it is listed as heritage. 

The importance of cemetery records

In the early, heady days of family research, my parents visited old cemeteries with a gusto that only other children with parents invested in family history would understand. Unlike today where the digital world offers vicarious ways to visit, analog family history research involved letters to cemetery trustees, photocopied cemetery plans marked X for plot locations, and photographs of headstones to provide vital details for names and dates, often leading to other important records or people.  The digital realm is extraordinarily important – many cemetery trustees have digitised their records, in fact, SMCT trustees specifically ask that genealogical enquiries are only requested online and not in person!

I spent hours trawling through the Belfast City Council burial records before and after a research trip to Belfast in 2018. It gave me important official details such as name, date of death and burial, location (of grave and last known address). However, there can be limitations. Visiting a grave in Belfast gave me a whole new name that incidentally was and is still not listed in the search engine (This death occurred in 1980, perhaps the online anomaly is related to privacy).

Melbourne General Cemetery

One of my sibling’s earliest memories is getting lost in the Melbourne General Cemetery. On the same day, I recall wet weather, eating sandwiches in the car waiting for the rain to stop. A strange place to visit as a kid.

The first ancestor in the Meagher family buried on Wurundjeri Country at the Melbourne General Cemetery is Margaret Meagher (nee Sheehy) who died in August 1866 after only three years in the fledgling colony (my paternal great-great grandmother)[5]. Four months later, her newborn son, Philip, succumbed to the ‘want of breast milk’[6] and was buried with her. In 1901, Margaret’s husband, Michael Meagher was interred in the same plot[7]. They were all buried in Roman Catholic, Compartment D, 65.

Two out of their four children (who survived to adulthood) John Sheehy Meagher and Mary Anne McLellan (nee Meagher) are buried at Boroondara along with all of John’s children except Frank (Templestowe), Vin (Melbourne General Cemetery) and Jack (Warrandyte). Vincent (Vin) Michael Meagher and his wife Kathleen Elizabeth Meagher (nee O’Donnell) both died in 1966 and are buried in Roman Catholic, Compartment NA, 118.

Most of the Donovan family are buried in Seymour or in suburban cemeteries, with the only exception (as far as I can tell), my grandmother’s eldest brother, William Joseph Donovan who died in 1964 and according to my mother’s notes, is interred at teh Melbourne General Cemetery in section E, no.19. However, I was unable to verify this on the  Southern Metropolitan Cemetery Trusts (SMCT) database.

The Carden family (my grandfather’s mother’s family) has a double family plot, Roman Catholic Compartment U, 1033 and 1034 with the following buried: Richard Carden (1828-1891), his wife, Roseanna Short (1855-1905); three of their seven children, John Luxford Patrick (1864-1889), and Mary Ann (1856-1933).  Rosanna’s brother – the source of the family name Luxford in the Meagher family – John Luxford Short (1840-1932); Robert James Carden (1860-1946); Robert’s wife, Frances Carden (nee Collins) (1903-1989)[1].

Carden family grave, Melbourne General Cemetery, c.1980s

Digging deep has uncovered a typo in a published book, gaps in information, and inefficiency. I really need to get my mum’s notes and research into a digital database so that information is easily retrieved. I like the old fashioned methods and repositories of analog research, but it is not efficient for retrieval… Digging deep also uncovered the origin of the name Luxford, so I need to pull together a post on names that complements this post on nicknames. It also reminded me that I’ve not been back to Melbourne General Cemetery since that picnic, and I think it’s time to revisit to make good on Charles Loudon’s view that cemeteries ‘improve the morals and the taste, and … [allow] botanical riches to cultivate the intellect’.

Footnotes

[1] John Claudius Loudon, On the laying out, planting, and managing of cemeteries; and on the improvement of churchyards, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans Publisher, London, 1843, p.13.

[2] Celestina Sagazio ed., Cemeteries: Our Heritage, National Trust Victoria, 1992, p.30-35.

[3] The Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, Understanding the Right of Interment, webpage

[4] Anna Kelsey-Sugg and Skye Docherty, ABC News Our cemetery space is filling up. Is grave reuse the solution? Mon 28 Jun 2021

[5] Margaret Meagher, Southern Metropolitan Cemetery Trust, Ref No. 172925M 

[6] Death Certificate, Philip Meagher, died 13 January 1867, Victoria, Reg. No. 2734 / 1867, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria

[7] Michael Meagher, Southern Metropolitan Cemetery Trust, Ref No. 172927M 

[8] Southern Metropolitan Cemetery Trust, Roman Catholic, Compartment U, 1034