Scholarly Musings at the NSW State Library.
The State Library of NSW holds Scholarly Musings on the first Tuesday of each month and I've decided to book into a couple of them. This month's was Sydney's Early Cemeteries by Dr Lisa Murray. (You might remember my blog about her book, Sydney Cemeteries, A Field Guide. A Useful Book, 20/02/2017.) Lisa gave a very interesting talk that covered a range of topics, from the overcrowding of the first cemeteries, how the churches didn't want to hand over the control of burials, to the setting up of Rookwood Cemetery. I learnt that St John's Cemetery at Parramatta is the oldest undisturbed colonial cemetery in Sydney. When you consider that The Old Sydney Burial Ground, Devonshire Street and several others were removed to make way for buildings, this is good to know. She spoke of how the residents and shop keepers, near the Camperdown Cemetery would complain on the mist and vapours emanating from the cemetery, especially the pauper grave, as it was often left ope...