It was a chance visit to a National Trust heritage listed historic Homestead in McCrae (Arthur's Seat) in late 2017 that brought me here. I had to visit HER grave where she is peacefully at rest for 131 years - united with her mercurial husband as divided they were in life. I guess reading her Biography by Brenda Niall & another historian fuelled my interest - anything to do with history esp. about our great city always does.
Last year in Nov - in between Melb's prolific lockdowns - my friend & I failed to locate her tombstone. We did all the right things. At the
main entry from High St - under the historic clock tower, outside the admin office is a large digital search screen. You must have the spelling of the surname, the year of demise or birth correct. Use the Zoom tab for exact location & take pics of search result as map to guide you. The first screen that comes up when you hit Search is an arrow indicating general location but this can be wide off the mark.
You hope the Zoom tab works - which it didn't on my first visit & hence our hapless search for the needle in the haystack or my new catchphrase since then "search for a tombstone in a massive graveyard" which Booroondara Cemetery certainly is.
Walking here will give you a good workout - set on a hill with a teardrop shaped driveway for vehicle access. The newer graves are well marked but the older ones further back are a proverbial nightmare - with numbers & names erased by time or weeds & loads in advanced state of disintegration.
Nevertheless, my first visit to this Cemetery was delightful (though I am not one for
'haunting' cemeteries - pardon the pun). It was like walking around in an open art gallery set in landscaped gardens (lower parts). The beautiful & serene Springthorpe Memorial with its black marble, stained glass red domed roof & other symbolisms is both majestic & serene. The Egyptian style Mausoleum for the Syme family (at entrance) + many other older graves with exquisite & ornate sculptures/crosses
took my breath away. Not to mention the stunning roses in bloom in Nov.
One year on, last week - I had better luck with my original quest. Zoom tab worked! Search screen is rather sticky & grotty - do bring your sanitiser! This time - stumbled upon the detailed sculpture of the bronze greyhound resting over its master's tomb. There are lots more interesting ones to discover here. Signposts at main entry with directions to main tombstones/mausoleums & toilets - which are clean. There are side entries too but search screen is only at main entrance.
Found Georgiana Huntly McCrae nee Gordon's tombstone in a rather sad state of neglect (near side entrance from Parkhill Rd - located on left of driveway). Georgiana was a cultured Melbourne pioneer, illegitimate but acknowledged daughter of Marquis of Huntly & granddaughter of Duke of Gordon of Scottish Highlands, a diarist, one of the few female portrait painters of that time.
Wikipedia has a good summary but not about her trials & tribulations of settlement in Melb in 1841, the turbulent years in McCrae where the family lived peacefully with Aboriginals learning their ways, nor overwhelmingly as a long suffering wife of a mercurial, impractical lawyer who could never provide for their large family due to his unsettled itinerant ways. Georgiana was bilingual & was close friends with the first Superintendent of this fledgling settlement Charles La Trobe & his wife. She stepped in to accompany La Trobe when Melb's iconic Princes Bridge was opened - linking Swanston-Flinders St to Southbank. She & her husband were close friends with the early 'who is who' of Melb colony, their home a favourite hub of the newly arrived - gentry & artists alike. Late in her life - Georgiana was unexpectedly left a legacy by sympathetic friend Westgarth (Melb suburb named after this luminary).
Georgiana Huntly McCrae's interesting life deserves to made into a documentary & her final resting place deserves ongoing...
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