Archaeology dig at Toowong Cemetery a chance to unearth Brisbane history

15 views
Skip to first unread message

Gary Vines

unread,
Jun 19, 2018, 9:41:12 PM6/19/18
to OzArch

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-26/archaeology-dig-at-toowong-cemetery-a-chance-to-unearth-history/9800474

Updated 26 May 2018, 8:05am

Spending Saturday digging in the dirt at the local cemetery may not sound like your average weekend activity, but for Brisbane's Time Team and Indiana Jones enthusiasts, it is ideal.

As part of National Archaeology Week, a team from the University of Queensland, led by Associate Professor Jon Prangnell, is inviting everyone to join in.

"We don't dig up graves at Toowong Cemetery," Dr Prangnell said.

"We are actually looking for the headstones that were buried in the 1970s when the council had an idea that it wanted to turn the cemetery into parkland.

"It demolished some of the graves [leaving the bodies] and disposed of them in the creek line that runs through the centre of the cemetery."

The dig is being undertaken in conjunction with volunteer group the Friends of Toowong Cemetery(FOTC) and is supported by Brisbane City Council.

It has been held annually for the past 12 years, during which time hundreds of funerary ornaments and pieces of granite, marble and limestone have been unearthed from the creek bed and other parts of the cemetery.

The challenge is putting the pieces back together in what is proving to be quite a geological jigsaw.

Destruction of headstones upset some

FOTC president Darcy Maddock and his wife Lyn said it was a very emotional experience to see smashed up headstones.

They said graves of returned soldiers were among those ruined in the '70s, with one council worker reportedly resigning from his position at the time because he was so upset about what was taking place.

Also not spared the jackhammer were the headstone of 'father of music in Brisbane' Silvester Diggles, who died in 1880, and Supreme Court judge Charles Stuart Mein, who died 10 years later.

"The place was left to go to wrack and ruin for a short while, weeds were allowed to grow, and then the mayor at the time instructed the health department to come in and identify untidy graves," Mr Maddock explained.

"For any graves considered untidy, they contacted the private undertaker who undertook the original burial to get an address.

"Quite often the address they were given to send information out to — the person was already in that grave."

Mr Maddock said that when the council could not make contact with families or funeral directors for people who had died 80 or 90 years previously, it went ahead and wrecked the grave.

"In the case of RM Gow, they had just gone through the '74 floods and all their records were gone so there was nothing they could do about that," he said.

"If the undertaker was out of business, well, nothing could be done there either, so approximately 2,500 graves throughout Brisbane were demolished."

Finds reunited with graves when possible

Already this week, Dr Prangnell and the FOTC volunteers, assisted by school children, unearthed a complete headstone for Thomas Wills, who was buried in 1912, and his wife Anne Massey.

In this instance, or when the puzzle of a headstone is solved, the FOTC organises to replace it at the original grave site where it came from.

"It runs into the hundreds and hundreds of headstones but it's hard to say how many we've actually removed over the years because many of them are fragmented," Dr Prangnell said.

"Last year we removed 44 fragments of headstones and we're doing that jigsaw, which adds up to a dozen headstones."

Mr Maddock said Lang Park stadium was built over seven burial grounds, previously known as the North Brisbane Burial Grounds, containing about 8,500 bodies.

"Those headstones were cleared in 1914 to make parkland and some of those ended up buried in Toowong Cemetery," Dr Prangnell said.

Students get dirty in name of learning

This year students from Forest Lake State High School have been on site getting their hands dirty.

"It's great finding things and then you feel like an archaeologist yourself, instead of just a kid who dug something and found a rock," said 12-year-old Maddison, clutching a chunk of dirty marble.

Their teacher, Alison Hirini, said it was a great opportunity for them to experience "a real life scenario" instead of reading about it in a book.

"They're in a pit, it's real life, [they're] getting in there and finding relics," she said.

"The joy on their faces when they find something and are able to relate it [to their learning] has just been amazing.

"These students are currently studying ancient civilisations so it's giving them that opportunity to get in and experience being an archaeologist rather than just reading about it from a book."

Maddison's friend Kristie, also 12, said she was enjoying the "hands on" part of it and finding "stuff".

"It was really different from how I imagined it would be when I learnt about it in lessons," she said.

The dig will be open to the public on Saturday from 9am at Toowong Cemetery.

Enter from Richer Street and follow the yellow signs to the site.

"If members of the public want to turn up, they can do some archaeology. They can help with recording anything that comes out; they can get themselves dirty if they want to," Dr Prangnell said.

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages