Suffer the little children

Louisa, Joseph, Eliza, and William - infant children of Thomas & Hannah May 1851 - 1862 Camperdown Graveyard, within the grounds of St Stephen's Anglican Church, Newtown.

This is my contribution to the Weekend in Black and White community.

An empty shell

As I l meandered from Leichhardt to Newtown the other day, along Norton Street, Parramatta Road, and then Australia Street, I was overwhelmed with the amount of building work I passed. I though we were in a recession, being pummled by the 'patchwork economy'. There were numerous shabby, vacant shop fronts, but they were matched by factory conversions into living units and trendy workplaces.

Here is one such. Along the lower end of Australia Street stand these old warehouses. Only the facade of the original remains, the guts to be renovated to within an inch of its life, no doubt. I have seen so many of these go pear-shaped, be insensitive to the original, be PC-heritage.

I will come back and look at these apartments in the Spring, and see if they get MY tick of approval.

If you can't beat it, join it ...

I mentioned on Monday that Newtown is a suburb in which graffiti is, if not encouraged, then not actively discouraged. There are parts of the suburb where entire walls are covered. It is a very old, quite delapidated inner-city suburb. Some of the graffiti looks good. Other bits are just tags, with very little artistic merit, and no socio-political point. These buildings are along another boundary of the Camperdown Memorial Rest Park. The murals here are quite suitable, IMHO.

Theme Day - Good fences make good Neighbours: from the Inside

On the inside of the wall that fences off the St Stephen's graveyard from the Camperdown Memorial Rest park, beauty reigns supreme. Remember here, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is the wild, rampant beauty of decay and neglect. Wilful neglect, mind you. I for one, would not wish this graveyard to be neatly tended and trimmed.

Eric at PDP tells me that 1st November is All Soul's Saints' Day, the day for visiting departed in cemeteries around the country.


Remember some of the history from yesterday's view of the outside of this wall. The larger cemetery was established in 1848 and closed - full - in 1867. In 1948, hundred of headstones from around the wider park were moved to within church grounds, and laid up against the stone wall. They were nailed to the wall, in good faith. However, the nails rusted, and the headstones cracked. There are tours on the first Sunday of each month. But, I am all for the solitary meander, and the soft touch upon crumbling headsones. Beauty is fact enough.

Click here to view thumbnails from around the world for this Theme Day.

Good fences make good Neighbours: from the Outside

This post may sadden you, it may disgust you, or it might even anger you. But what you are seeing here is the norm for Newtown. Graffiti is encouraged in this suburb. I am sure they would like 'quality' graffiti, but as you will see, that is rarely the case.


This is the sandstone wall which fences off St Stephen's church and graveyard. Originally, the graveyard had been a cemetery, with the church being added as an after-thought. The cemetery was fenced off by a group of businessmen to turn a profit in 1848. And, they succeeded! The cemetery (which was just over 12 acres) was closed in 1867 having buried about 17,000 bodies. The church was built near the main gates to the cemetery in 1874, and over the decades the cemetery fell to wrack and ruin. Eventually, three quarters of Camperdown Cemetery was resumed in 1948 for Camperdown Memorial Rest Park which opened in 1951. The bodies were left in the ground; just the headstones moved in behind this sandstone wall.

Tomorrow, come and look on the inside of this fence.

MMM mmm ... hot coffee

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a cafe with a queue must have an excellent barista. And "Camps" has three of them. Having been over at Missenden Road twice in the last week, and in need of a heart-starter, I was overjoyed to not have to battle the early morning crowd.


And a lovely ambience it was. Their own roasted beans, organised service, chewy brownies. Just what was needed. Shall drop in every time now. On Missenden Road, just down from King Street. Same block as the Marlborough Hotel.



A new member of the Thursday Challenge community.