Cemetery Curiosities: July 2011

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Penrith here I come!!!

Went for an epic journey (it is epic if you live in Inner West Sydney) to Penrith to visit 4 more cemeteries on my list of locations. I was saddened to see one of them in a state of disrepair, gravestones laying all about the place and not much care in sight. This was in Jamistown, the Sir John Jamison Catholic Cemetery at the northern end of Lilac Place. I did take some shots there and was pleased to see a rather interesting headstone that depicted two angels holding up a crown together. This will be uploaded as soon as I can fix my photography software on my new virtual computer (long story).

The other three produced more interesting results. There are listed below with some small selections.

Other exciting news is that I found a fantastic book that I plan to have by me when entering new posts. It is titled: "Stories in Stone: A Field guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography" by Douglas Keister. Apart from having entries on a huge range of the aforementioned, it also has fantastic collection of source photographs. I highly recommend it.

Emu Plains General Cemetery
Mundy Street, Emu Plains

Brief History

The foundation stone for St Pauls Church was laid in 1847. Situated on a low hill overlooking the plains,

the cemetery includes some fine stone monuments associated with early families in the area.

The site was also the location of part of the prison quarters and kitchen garden of the Government

Farm established here in 1819." (Source: Penrith City Council Library)

An inscription list can be found HERE

I found, amongst other things, a Doc Marten boot on a grave, just one. Just to the side of another, a chicken's egg. Here is a selection of some other pictures from the site. I hope to have them up under My Photographic Collection before the new year (2012!)