Skip to main content

Better that the light cloud should fade away into heaven with the morning breath, than travail through the weary day to gather in darkness


Back when Tasmania was still Van Diemen's Land, a lot of babies died. A lot of babies. Earlier this week I spent my lunch break wandering around St David's Park here in Hobart looking at the gravestones they tore up to make a park. I snapped a few photos off, and noticed the preponderance of children's gravestones. The stones alone tell a bit of a story so I'll keep my mouth shut and let you look.















Labels:

Comments

Dina said…
So very sad. Those were tough times.

Did you say they tore up the gravestones to make a park?! Can they do that?
5 February 2010 at 09:10
Magpie said…
Some people see graveyards as scary places. I think they're peaceful, and although they're sad places sometimes, they can tell stories of strength, faith and perseverance. Thank you for sharing.
5 February 2010 at 12:46
ratatouille's archives said…
Hi! Kris,
What a sad occurance(s) and what very reflective and moving photographs.
What a very thought-provoking quote too...Merci de partager!

DeeDee ;-(
5 February 2010 at 15:32
Kris McCracken said…
Dina, they did so I guess that they can. There are a couple of Governors tombs still there, but they bulldozed the rest (including one of the Governor's children - the last of the stones I pictured).
5 February 2010 at 18:44
Kris McCracken said…
Magpie, I like graveyards. They are full of stories.

And occasionally sad teenagers.
5 February 2010 at 18:45
Kris McCracken said…
DeeDee, that was Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.
5 February 2010 at 18:47
Babzy.B said…
Very moving post !
5 February 2010 at 19:48
Roddy said…
Are we the fortunate ones because we survived, or are we the unfortunate ones because we survived?
Most cemetaries now sit on prime realestate. One hundred years and up you come for the next generation.
roll on progress. It stops for no man!
5 February 2010 at 21:46
Kris McCracken said…
Babzy, alas it is true.
6 February 2010 at 18:39
Marie said…
How sad. We are so fortunate that medical care has advanced.
7 February 2010 at 03:14
Roddy said…
Person! Gender non specific. How the English language now tests me.
7 February 2010 at 19:59
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...
5 comments
Read more

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...
38 comments
Read more

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.
36 comments
Read more