Photo 4 - the Ebbott gravestone in Chewton, Victoria, Australia

Taken on a field trip with Joy Manners in November 2004

Transcription of the gravestone

“In

Memory

Of

MARGRET EBBOTT

Died 28 Dec1906

A True Wife

Devoted Mother

Also

JOHN EBBOTT

Died 29^th Aug 1920

Aged 80

At Rest

Peace Perfect Peace”

& Further below

“Also JOHN (Sen)

1808 -  1867

Wife SARAH

interred Kew (Vic)

1814 – 1898”

This photo was taken at Chewton Cemetery in 2004, so quite some time ago, a later one was taken in 2010 and it was sad to see the letter deterioration, but it’s not really that surprising given the dry conditions and the extremes in temperature particularly when the sun can be so fierce.    

Australian Country cemeteries are quite different to the ones that I visited in Cornwall.  The cemeteries in the golden triangle in Victoria are dry, in summer the grass is brown and there is usually a lot of dust in the air.

In 2006 I was involved in organizing a small family reunion, as you can imagine there were lots of activities to organize and one of those activities was a cemetery tour of on one of the local cemeteries near Bendigo.  We all gathered, the youngest person was in their 20s the eldest person was over 80.  It was hot and the ground was uneven and it was sometimes hard to hear the local tour guide and ants that crawled across our shoes were disgusting, but of course I wouldn't have missed it for the world. 

But what we hadn't taken into account was how the eldest amongst us were faring.  That was the first reunion since then we have got better at organizing them and people know to put on a hat and sun screen and take a bottle of water.  And John who has since passed away, did recover from his heat stroke, we only wanted to visit the dead not join them!