By Tanya Steele
A local history group invites all to come to listen to the stories of some of the families in the Casey Cardinia region of times past.
A postmistress, a police officer, a First Nations artist and many others have all been laid to rest in the Emerald Cemetery and their stories lie waiting to be told.
The Narre Warren and District Family History Group Inc. will host its annual spring cemetery walk-through on Sunday 27 October.
President Jane Rivett-Carnac said the group try to show what it was like for people at different times living in that community.
“With things that they might struggle with,” they said.
Serving both family and local history within the City of Casey and the Shire of Cardinia – the not-for-profit group has been running the walks for a number of years.
Starting their walks in Berwick and Haraway, the group has branched out to other cemeteries – doing walks through Pakenham, Lang Lang, Bunyip, Cranbourne, the old community cemetery at Dandenong, and Berwick.
This is the first time through the Emerald site and Ms Rivett-Carnac said the only cemetery they haven’t done yet is the one in Gembrook.
Planning and researching the walks are a lengthy process and Ms Rivett-Carnacc said the group usually start by having a wander around the cemetery to look at the headstones, to see what’s written on them.
“We see if something jumps out at us,” she said.
“We make a list – we also look at people that we know of – like early pioneers, etc, who are in the cemetery. “
“We make a list of about 30 names, and then we start looking to see what we can find.”
“We begin by using our own collection, we have a lovely collection of books and data sets and digital records for the Casey Cardinia region.”
After a deeper investigation using public records files, and newspapers on Trove, the group begin to assemble the tour.
“This process takes, normally, maybe about eight months,” said Ms Rivett-Carnacc.
“We then go the cemetery and do a couple of practices on our own to make sure that the walk is safe for people,” she said.
The group have done a walk every since 2011 (except for Covid years) in October for History Month and recently celebrated 35 years of keeping local history alive through their efforts as a small but mighty volunteer organisation.
The spring walk became a more regular annual effort after they began book production for the 2011 Pakenham Cemetery Walk.
“During the years for the 100th anniversary of World War One, we also did cemetery walks in April for our World War One soldiers in our local cemeteries,” said Ms Rivett-Carnacc.
“That was over 500 stories researched and written in the four years,” she said.
Notably, the Berwick tour revealed the unmarked grave of a forgotten soldier and with the help of the RSL, the Cemetery Trust and the Pakenham-Berwick Gazette, Brigadier General C.H.Foott now has a headstone and recognition of his service.
The thoroughly researched walks have resulted in many books published and the group always provide copies to the local libraries of the cemeteries they research.
“We put a copy to the legal deposit to the National Library and the State Library, and those books are then available for people to purchase,” said Ms Rivett-Carnacc.
Emerald Cemetery itself has been known by many names over the years, including Nangana, Macclesfield Cemetery and Avonsleigh.
The cemetery grounds tell a story as well and Ms Rivett-Carnacc said the beautiful gardens onsite can be attributed to a notable person in the Emerald community, Gus Ryberg, who passed away in 2020.
“If you read his book, you will read that he worked at a local nursery and he had access to plants,” she said.
“It’s just a beautiful place to be because of the work he did planting this wide variety of trees, plants and shrubs.”
Ms Rivett-Carnacc said a walk through the Emerald cemetery displays several unique headstones that gives glimpses into the lives of the people at rest there.
“I’m guessing, because it’s a lot of artistic people in the hills, there’s a lot of individual hand-carved, beautifully presented memorials,” she said.
“We even have someone we are talking about who won an Academy Award.”
The walking tour is on Sunday 27 October from 10am to 12pm with a light morning tea served after and located at Emerald Cemetery, 180 Macclesfield Road in Avonsleigh.
People book the walk for ten dollars per person at the group’s website at: https://nwfhg.org.au/event/emerald-cemetery-walk/
