Cemeteries of the Future…….

Taphophilia is defined as a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries[1]. It is sad to say, that not everyone enjoys exploring cemeteries or the ponderings of the lives of those that were interned. It is even sadder to say that not everyone believes that cemeteries are a place where we can pay our respects to the dead and thank them for the contribution their life made, no matter how small or big that contribution was.

Frightening isn’t it?

Even more frightening is the contemplation that cemeteries are being defiled. I do not mean by vandals, or youngsters with no respect or understanding of respect, but by community officials.

It is happening, the world over and ultimately driven by money. What society puts money and profit before respect? That for me is one of my personal values.

Last week, I became aware of the plight of a series of cemeteries in Australia, that are facing decimation, not by vandals, but as I have described by an attempt to save money. These are the graves of, not just the pioneers of Australia, but of the people that shaped Australia into being the nation it is today.  As it stands, Australia is only 225 years old in its colonised format.

A fellow genealogist, Catherine who writes at Seeking Susan ~ Meeting Marie had already experienced a similar issue in South Australia and was delighted when the South Australia Burial and Cremation Bill had passed it’s second reading in the House of Assembly and was due a further debate in early March, ironically on the day I am writing this article. In reality as I type this in England on Tuesday morning the debate as already been heard in Australia.

So at this point all was looking pretty good, the people who sit at the heart of the Australian Government were listening. Then it became apparent that whilst in South Australia they were listening they were not in other parts of Australia.

On the blog That Moment in Time, written by Chris was a posting just last week of the shameless desecration of the Karraketta Cemetery in Western Australia. You can read that heartbreaking post HERE.

So what can we do?

There is a petition lobbying the Labour Party of Western Australia to bring an end to the clearing of the cemeteries in this region. You can sign the petition HERE. This petition can be signed by anyone, anywhere in the world, whether or not you have ancestors in this region. Indeed I have signed it from my home in England. As far as I know I have no family members buried in this particular cemetery.

Remember, this may not be in your particular backyard, or at least not this time.

There is a very active Face Book page called Saving Graves - WA which exists to support the petition. It has photographs, current news and press cuttings.  Indeed, the group is very passionate and quite rightly so. Craig Hyde, Media Advisor for Saving Graves WA has written very passionately about the situation and I urge you to read his post HERE

There is also a link to a file detailing all the graves recorded with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that are to be removed. Haven’t those already named on those headstones already paid the ultimate price?

Press Release of Saving Graves WA

Furthermore, it became apparent through the reading that I undertook for this article that “some graves were to be preserved for significant historical or architectural reasons”[2] Disgraceful, that even in death we are not equal.

The genealogy community is a big one and through the advancement of social media we, as a body of genealogists and family historians have a much stronger voice. One that needs to be heard, and indeed should be heard.

Whilst this may seem someone else’s problem it is not. The very moment a community displays this level of disrespect and it remains unchallenged then we as a group of genealogists, historians and family members are sending the signal that it is perfectly OK to show this level of disrespect to the generations that went before us. We must therefore stand together, united as previous generations did at battle and demand that our ancestor’s final resting place remains undisturbed

So, please get involved, support our fellow citizens.

I shall close with a poem, written by Chris of That Moment in Time, as this simply says it all.

GRANDMA'S FOUNDATION

I went to visit Grandma
Her stone it wasn’t there
I thought I made an error
But I did look everywhere
It was then I noticed rubble
Right against the fence
And a dumpster full of rubbish
It really was quite dense.
Then I saw my Grandma’s name
As if she was calling me
“Please help me darling granddaughter
Will you please help me be free
For crushing is the next step
Road base they say they need
  I suspect that that is just a cover up
It all comes down to greed.
The land here’s rather valuable
I heard the workmen say
My lovely stone you saved for
Will be destroyed today.”

© Crissouli - 2013

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[1] Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taphophilia

[2] Quote from Steve James, Client Relations Consultant for the Western Australia Metropolitan Cemetery Board, Published in the “Subiaco Post on 1^st May 2006.

On line Journal of Graveyard Rabbit

Saving Graves WA (Western Australia)

The following is a rather passionate peice from Craig Hyde, Media Advisor for Saving Graves WA (Western Australia).

"May I take the opportunity to thank all for reading this note. I also thank many of my friends for taking opportunity to highlight this abhorrent process of the desecration of the last place of rest for many Western Australians?
 
I will highlight a few erroneous comments that have been made by the MCB in relation to these dreadful actions. Their mission statements and vision statements are purely aimed at making money, by the improvement of facilities, therefore attracting more persons to the cemetery and as a flow on effect their aim is more burials, regardless of the historical value that every person interned in the cemetery has made to the state of Western Australia. 

Further to this the Minister and Board Members, for those that aren't aware, are:- 
 
Minister: Hon G M (John) Castrilli MLA Minister for Local Government; Heritage; Citizenship and Multicultural Interests; 
 
Chair:
Dr Leonie Liveris – Chair
Deputy Chair:

• Joe O‟Dea Jnr: Managing Director Bowra & O’dea Funeral Directors

Board members:

• Don Whittington – Ex-Councillor of the City of Fremantle- 
• Dr Ricki Smith – sales, marketing, product development, communications, strategic planning
• Brenda Robbins – barrister at Sir Clifford Grant Chambers
• Tony Evans – resources, property, education and not-for-profit sectors
• Janice Bowra: Murdoch University Senate – Legislation Committee, and the Audit and Risk Management Committee 

So what to take from this? In my opinion clearly we have a historian who appears to have lost the empathetic emotions required to be objective, A funeral director who it is in his best interest to open more plots in a popular area, A jobs for the boys, A salesman, A barrister who clearly ensures that they are covered judicially, another salesman, and a Health and Safety professional who through evidence already presented appears not to practice what she preaches.  
 
I am not insinuating any fraudulent behaviour here but it stands out that the State government has colloquially given the keys to the liquor cabinet to a bunch of over amorous drinkers who are clearly after the dollar irrelevant of what social impact it may have.
 
The boards answer to public consultation is a sign citing that the area is due for renewal and a small plaque at the foot of the grave. No true public notification and public consultation is entered into, unlike what is required for projects such as but not limited to the redevelopment of land/s for commercial use. 
 
As a direct descendant of a number of “early” settlers to the Swan River colony, I further find this practice of subjectively deciding who holds cultural or historical significance by a group of people as mentioned above clearly with the outlook to make money. The current MCB of WA is over weighted with bureaucrats and people with a direct vested interest in the “renewal process” or have been friendly to their plight in the past. Not one of these bureaucrats are focused purely on historical or personal value of the interned.  
 
The MCB outline in their releases that they are concerned that of the constant upkeep of degrading grave stones and grave areas are costs which they are not able to continue to under take within their budgetary abilities. I emphatically suggest that this statement is erroneous. If you wish to research further or visit the areas which are marked for desecration, the realisation will be obvious that little to no expense is outlaid in these areas, nor has it been done in the previous years to preserve these areas.  
 
I have just been reviewing the MCB Annual Report for 2011-12, A disturbing passages from MCB Chair Dr Leonie Liverus “As a result of the changes to the WA Cemeteries Act in 1986, a number of Grants of Rights of Burial were scheduled to expire on 2 July 2012. Although the Board had initiated a sound communications strategy around these expiries, just prior to 2 July 2012, and during the reporting period, incorrect information was provided to the media, causing significant unnecessary community confusion. Board staff responded to an extraordinary number of enquiries and were able to allay many of the concerns expressed by families. Whilst a number of families have opted to renew their Grants for peace of mind, many have, with the passage of time, not felt the need to renew.”
 
I challenge Dr Liverus to further explain what information was incorrect? At the time of publishing this note there has been no evidence other than the words of a group of people with ulterior motives and all evidence is subjective to say the least.
 
Whilst the MCB in the past have removed Commonwealth War Grave Commission (CWGC) headstones and Official Australian War Grave (OAWG) headstones, following our previous campaign CWGC headstones were replaced (26 of them) and the removal of OAWG headstones ceased to some extent. However, family headstones of defence personal are removed even if there is mention of service on the headstone. There have been several applications with OAWG for replacement of headstones belonging to POW's, amputees and those that are possibly official war dead, of which many are still awaiting response or action. All CWGC headstones that have been replaced however the new headstones are no longer on the grave itself but 'somewhere in the vicinity'. This has resulted in descendents not being able to find them or having to wander about looking for them if they decide to visit their ancestors` graves. 
 
There are a number of alternatives to removing headstones and wasting 100′s of thousands of dollars on grass reticulation and damaging graves of historical value (again photographic evidence available). Options include but are not limited to closing the Cemetery to “new graves", this has been previously argued against by Funeral Directors due to it not being a popular option for their clients, allowing for familial internment, using the areas between graves leaving the current grave either side intact to name but a few. The MCB of WA refuses to consider these options hence the reason for the online Petition at change.org.
 
May I ask that rather than take the sanitised outline by a bureaucratic organisation not focused on the preservation of the culture and heritage of Western Australia that people actually investigate this for themselves and make their own decisions regarding the history that is attached to every grave in both Karrakatta and ultimately Fremantle as well. These are the people who have made a contribution to our society, assisting us in shaping the state into what it is today. Farmers, nurses, doctors, politicians, teachers, scoundrels and ratbags alike, they are who have made WA a great state, and now we are about to further allow a board to dictate this disastrous act to the history of WA.
 
I would implore anyone who has comments or questions, feel free to contact the MCB of WA however also please contact Saving Graves WA, Sandra Playle fedelmar@hotmail.com or myself craih91@bigpond.com if you have further questions or require further clarification on the points outlined above. 

Last of all I would like to share a poem Author unknown but poignant all the same; 

Your tombstone stands among the rest,  Neglected and alone. The name and the date are chiselled out, On polished, marbled stone.
 
It reaches out to all who cares, It is too late to mourn. You did not know that I exist, You died and I was born.
 
Yet each of us are cells of you, In flesh, in blood, in bone. Our blood contracts and beats a pulseEntirely not our own.
 
Dear Ancestor, the place you filled, One hundred years ago, Spreads out among,  the ones you left. Who would have loved you so?
 
I wonder if you lived and loved, I wonder if you knew That someday I would find this spot, And come to visit you.
 
Yours in history, Craig"

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War Grave - Harry Trimming

Name: Harry Trimming

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Private

Regiment/Service: Royal Army Service Corps

Unit Text: M.T.

Age: 42

Date of Death: 10/01/1919

Service No: M2/045734

Additional information: Son of Harry Trimming, of Alton, Hants; husband of Isabella Trimming, of Meadow Cottage, Suffield Lane, Puttenham, Guildford.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Near East boundary.

Memorial Location: St Laurence Churchyard, Seale

Wanborough Surrey War Memorial

Situated just inside the Church

1914 – 1919

BICKNELL, Frank            The Queens Regiment

CHENNELL, Bertie          Royal Fusiliers

CHENNELL, Ernest          H M S Aboukir

HARDING, Henry J        The Queens Regiment

HATCH, Owen W             Royal Fusiliers

HAWKES, John E            Hampshire Regiment

HEDGER, William J         Royal Fusiliers

NORMAN, Frederick E    The Buffs

REVELL, David                The Queens Regiment

SAUNDERS, Arthur        H M S Hampshire

SAUNDERS, William       H M S Formidable

1939 – 1945

CHENNELL, W B       R. N. S. S. Belcrest

PERKINS, A C           R. A. S. C.