What makes your Nillumbik home town/area unique? Who are the characters who have made it so? What sites have significance and why? During 2005 Nillumbik Shire Council and the Literary Reference Group invited members of the community to respond to these questions, to show us the history and flavour of your place – then and now – in a 500 word anecdote. The following article was written by Sheila Dixon who passed away in April 2008. Her daughter has kindly given permission to share her story.
Cemeteries in country places are rather special and the one in Kangaroo Ground is no exception. It’s just on the edge of the hamlet and a sloping site gently pointing to the north east. Through the gums and the hills there is a seat carefully placed so that the view of the distant mountains can be seen. The hills roll from here to the Kinglake mountains and the beginning of the Great Divide. Nearby are the farms of the local cattle and sheep people all interspersed with the geometric rows of vineyards which cover the hills through the Yarra Valley and beyond.
I find this small cemetery quite intimate for two of my aunts are buried along with many people I have known since my childhood. Auntie Beth, who played a mean game of Scrabble with me right up until she died, is there under her rose bush. There has been a water tank placed there so that the many little gardens on the gravesites can be watered. Near the entrance is a rather nice rotunda. Occasionally I see someone burning prunings and cuttings just giving the place a gentle air of being looked after.
There is a gathering of family names of farming people who I remember as a child. Many Scots who came out here in Victorian times to run cattle and sheep on the now familiar paddocks of Kangaroo Ground and many of these families are still with us.
Then there are the sad reminders of modern day tragedies like the two young fire fighters who lost their lives on Ash Wednesday. I didn’t know them personally but it is enough that they are lying near the place they tried to save. The war dead are always there of course but there is one grave that is rather special and that is of a little girl called Judith Furphy. She was the first resident in this cemetery and died in 1851 when it was started. The sad reason for her death according to her mother was that she caught a chill from sitting on wet grass. Now, my mother always warned me about this when I was a child and here was the proof. Germs were just not enough in those days.
Walking through the rows I am aware of the various countries people had emigrated from. I suppose Kangaroo Ground was just far enough away from the busy and dirty city Melbourne was becoming, and these farmers needed good land. The surnames point to German, Dutch and Italian people and many from Great Britain. Needless to say they are now all sharing the same view and the same song of the magpies.
Around the perimeter of the cemetery is a rather prosaic arrangement. A rabbit proof fence! Yes, rabbits have a wonderful time here. Grasses and gardens to munch and it was the last straw when they began burrowing under the graves. Apparently, it was an ancient river bed and quite sandy; wonderful stuff for rabbits.
Because Kangaroo Ground is still only lightly touched by people, the cemetery has a closeness about it and a real feeling of being looked after. I suppose the population will grow, but I hope this little piece of acreage will be cared for in this way for many years to come.
by Sheila Dixon
Thank you, for that lovely little piece written about Kangaroo Ground Cemetery. I enjoyed it very much. I discovered the post when I’d just looked to see what more I could find out about it. I’ve been there to see the cemetery years ago in the hope of finding graves of my Fitzsimmons great great grandparents who came from Ireland. They are there with 2 of their children in unmarked graves. It was a lovely place and an experience I enjoyed.