Caring For Monuments at Rookwood

The Les Darcy Vault in Maitland IV: Restoration

2012-01-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

It was a great feeling when the safety fence came down and the plastic and hessian (mortar aftercare) came off.... Stepping back, you could see that the project has really been a success.
Even though I do maintain that conservation should trump restoration, well, in this case, restoration rightly won out.

The Les Darcy gravesite before we started the stonework restoration.

With the historic kerbset gone – thrown out rather than maintained or repaired, probably in the 1970s – and a brutal (and failed) concrete monstrosity poured over the vault and graves, well, I think the Maitland City Council and the family and all of the interested parties and donors and, particularly, the guiding team of heritage experts and professionals: they got it right... and we were very happy to get to play our part.

Here's a black-and-white photo of what the vault looks like now

and here's the historic photo from the National Library of Australia

©National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3772881

We may not have raised much money for the Trusts at Rookwood, but we did get to help in a great project... and one which proved team-building (at least that's what I'm telling myself about our overnight stays in the highway-side caravan park) and gave us a chance to do some real traditional stonemasonry. All good!

By the way, if you happen to follow this blog, sorry for adding all of the various Les Darcy stories all at once. I try not to be superstitious, but, somehow, I never want to post any of the stories about a job until it's all done. Maybe not superstitious but just prudent... or, maybe, just superstitious?

Wondabyne

2012-01-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Had a great hike on the weekend heading out from Wondabyne Station to Woy Woy (and then down to Ettalong beach for a swim). I was quite excited to get a glimpse of the Wondabyne Quarry... particularly as we've just been working with the sandstone on the Les Darcy grave restoration in Maitland.

With no access to the Wondabyne Quarry... this is as close as you can get...

It turns out that the station at Wondabyne is awesome: tiny and on the water– one carriage long only and you have to be in the last car and warn the guard in advance that you want the train to stop... but you can hardly see the quarry at all. The old Quarry manager's house (or what seems to be such... as it is inside the fence) is great and then you can see some cranes and derricks and catch glimpses of the quarry faces. It was one of those times when you're very happy to have a camera with a good zoom... 'cause even though I couldn't see much in real life... the photos show things up quite wonderfully.

There is, however, a public wharf that you can sit on and cool your toes in the river... and then a great hike up the hill and, some management trail sections aside, lots of interesting spots along a solidly good trek bringing you slowly around and then up Mount Wondabyne... with a waterfall along the way

just watch out for the strange biting grubs in the water...

Here's to Wondabyne Sandstone!

a sneak peak at our carving for the Les Darcy gravesite restoration

The Les Darcy Vault in Maitland III: On the Chain Gang

2012-01-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

You never know what you're going to end up doing at this job. Today, it was picking out small grey pebbles from a rockpile of thousands of stones. Tomorrow, well, it could hardly get crazier, could it?

When you're sorting pebbles, especially small pebbles of less than 10mm, you start to think all sorts of crazy thoughts. I tried to focus only on how funny it was that, yes, here I am sorting pebbles. Eventually though, I couldn't help but do some math...
1.5 tonnes of pebbles
1 cubic metre of pebbles
each handful including 15 pebbles
handfuls averaging 3 reject pebbles
handfuls weighing, say, 100g of pebbles
10 handfuls in a kilogram of pebbles
1000 kilograms in a tonne of pebbles...
10,000 handfuls of pebbles
150,000 pebbles
30,000 reject pebbles...
All those white pebbles at Bunnings, do you think that they are hand-sorted in China or India
Factories sorting pebbles?
What about the historic 'New Zealand pebbles' that monumental masons used to sell at Rookwood?
Are there beaches of perfect pebbles?
People paid to actually pick and bag pebbles....?
Well, it's rather boring... pebbles this and pebbles that.

Matthew was away on holiday and Shannon was off with an injured ankle, so it fell to the apprentice Damian to anchor the sorting job... but, oddly, it was myself and Grahame who survived it best. We had thought that a very simple job where you could chat on speakerphone all day or listen to music, well, wouldn't it be a perfect job for an apprentice? Turns out, no. It was us old-timers who could do it... and it was like I was killing Damian whenever I tried to leave him there. Maybe the pile was too big? Maybe he did a version of the math too? I think he would have rather that we pulled out some of his teeth. So we did it... although we eventually settled on sorting out a reasonable number only... which ate away any profit we might have made... but did give us an excellent result!

Pebbles locked into the bottom of the concrete infill when the vault was 'fixed' in the 70s or 80s!

The good part, and why we ended up doing such a crazy job, is that we really did have an almost perfect match with the original historic pebbles. Grant found a mass of them on the underside of the concrete render completed in the so-called restoration work done in the 1970s (?), so we knew exactly what had been there. We searched locally in Maitland (where we had had wonderful success at Saddington's... an awesome old-time outdoor, landscaping, hardware everything-it-should-be store) but couldn't source them... then tried online... and ended up driving around Sydney too. We ended up finding a nearly perfect match... just with slightly too much of the grey and rusty-yellow. The original pebbles did have both, but in a slightly reduced proportion. So it seemed that, having gotten so close, well, we should really go all the way and get things as exactly right as we could.

So, somehow, Grahame, Damian and I spent a good part of a day picking pebbles

out of a massive pile of pebbles.

Still more carving...

2012-01-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

Sorry if this blog gets a bit boring... but it seems like I keep coming back to carving... (which is, perhaps, not surprising given that I seem to be spending so much time obsessively doing it!)

I finally finished the low relief waratah which I promised Libby's mom... one day late (can you believe it... I really only had 2 hours more to do on Christmas Day and, although Libby was very forgiving and gave me time to have a go at finishing the carving, well, it really wasn't realistic). Anyway, the carving turned out much better than I had feared... and was a wonderful introduction to actually doing bas-relief work.

I've been lucky enough to have had good long days at both the British Museum and the Louvre... and at both, it was the low relief work taken from ancient sites (especially Assyria) which most enthralled me. So, after 20 years, I've finally had a go at it and, well, it's hard! It took forever to do a small panel 200mm x 160mm with the carving only 1.5mm deep. A crazy amount of time. Maybe 40 hours? Maybe more.

Starting the waratah (and a bunch of cycladic figurines) in October...

progress in November...

I think I could do it in half the time, if I ever do it again... and a quick sandstone one I've started has been so much faster (only 1 hour so far, and it seems half-done, though we'll see how long it takes to actually finish it)

I still need to decide what to do about the background... maybe two directions of scutch marks?

Gordon Brown– a Rookwood Icon– Has Left Us

2011-10-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

Very sad afternoon today at Rookwood as we heard the news that the wonderful Gordon Brown has left us.

I can't speak for others, and I know that I can't do Gordon justice, but I've got to try.

I know that I was lucky to get as much of a chance to know him as I did, but I do wish that I had more. He has had a tremendous and permanent effect on me. Libby brought me to Australia, but it was Gordon who pulled me into the Rookwood fold.

Interestingly, it was only yesterday that Eric, of the Friends of Rookwood reminded me of my first trip to Rookwood, as he was with Gordon on a tour day and we ended up having a great and interesting conversation. I'm a shy person, but there was something about Gordon that made a deep impression, and an almost instant connection... a connection which slowly brought me around to Rookwood which seemed too big, too wild, too much, inhuman... and yet, now, is an anchor in my life. Gordon taught me so much about lettering and about lead-lettering... and shared his knowledge to the point of exhaustion. Grahame and Matthew and I will never be able to repay him, except maybe by continuing to improve... and practice... and help keep the skill going. But I owe Gordon much more, and I know that he'll always be with me when I'm in Rookwood, and whenever I'm working and thinking about what I do.

Gordon Brown will be forever missed... but also forever celebrated in the landscape of Rookwood– in the lead lettering, in the care of the grounds, in everyone who is a friend of Rookwood.

Gordon Brown at 71 teaching us lead lettering. He was amazing.

Thank you Gordon. Thank you so much.

The Les Darcy Vault in Maitland II: Matching the Historic Design

2011-10-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

We've got our design! In consultation with the team of experts that Maitland City Council has brought together for the Les Darcy grave restoration under Aaron Cook, we've agreed to specifications for the replacement kerbset which should be great.

A historic photo from the National Library of Australia provides great evidence:


©National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3772881

As you can see (hopefully) the new kerbs should be a great match for the historic ones

After discussions and solid deliberation with the project team from Maitland City Council, I did a series of test versions using Google Sketchup. The 3D modelling allowed me to keep trying different options to find the best possible match... with shadows and the ability to change perspective, its very powerful... and, up to now, all my playing around with Sketchup was, well, playing around. All of a sudden I can do something specifically useful!?!

After discussions and solid deliberation with the project team from Maitland City Council, I did a series of test versions using Google Sketchup. The 3D modelling allowed me to keep trying different options to find the best possible match... with shadows and the ability to change perspective, its very powerful... and, up to now, all my playing around with Sketchup was, well, playing around. All of a sudden I can do something specifically useful!?!

The pillar design with joggle hole.

One thing I found most interesting was that the 'check' on the pillars is not formed by a square cutting or an architectural cavetto (quarter-round hollow) but is, instead, created by a shallow v-cut. Even a very shallow angled cut produces strong shadown with dark and light contrasting bands which are visually arresting... and yet requires very little stone removal.

Surveying Has Started

2011-10-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

The State of Vaults & Grand Monuments project has started! We're now at 10 of ~330 vaults... and it looks like it's going to be great... if a real challenge.

Volunteers from The Friends of Rookwood joined me on Sunday Oct 16th for the inaugural survey... and we had a good time on a beautiful day....

Check out the project website if you're interested... and, of course, there's lots of volunteer opportunities if you might want to get involved... on site, online, or at a reference library... we've got lots of interesting (and, to be fair, also lots of rather repetitive) stuff to do!

http://sites.google.com/site/rookwoodmonuments/

Survey Schedule:
the 3rd Sunday of every month, and,
the last Wednesday of every month...
{as long as the Bureau of Meteorology is not forecasting more than 10mm of rain for Sydney Olympic Park at 60%+ chance as of 9pm the night before}
see the website for more info...!

There wasn't this many watsonia where we were surveying on Oct 16th... but they are in flower now throughout Rookwood...

The Les Darcy Vault in Maitland I

2011-08-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

We're all quite excited and honoured to have been chosen to do the stonework restoration component of a large project by Maitland City Council and the local community.

It's going to be an interesting challenge for me– and for us as a team.... Personally, my firm philosophical commitment to Conservation means that I try to avoid Restoration work: I'm almost always trying to retain and protect historic fabric... not replicate it. I may also struggle with working to other peoples specifications: I am used to being in control of the work that I do... and setting my own specifications... with the flexibility to respond to unforeseen problems with the fabric.

As a team, the project will require long drives overnight trips, and a larger workforce than we usually take for off-site work... especially as the apprentices seem very keen to take part... their parents & grandparents remembering Les Darcy!

The gravestone of the legendary boxer is a vault which has been suffering water problems and subsidence over the past decades... and which had a massive and unsympathetic renovation in the 1960s where the beautiful historic kerbset was removed and replaced with a monstrous mass of concrete. Our job will be to prepare and install standstone kerbing to match the lost historic design: check out the Maitland City Council job specifications which includes a great history.

Volunteer Project

2011-07-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure that I really know what I've gotten myself into... but, somehow, there's a massive volunteer project growing at Rookwood and I've got lots of work to do!

The collapse of the HOARE vault was the impetus for the whole project.

We need to fully record such monuments as a precondition for effective

management... and for applying for heritage grants!

Working with the Friends of Rookwood, with a wide range of volunteers, and including members of– and co-operation with– the Jewish Cemetery Trust, the Independent Cemetery Trust, the Anglican & General Cemetery Trusts... and the National Trust Cemeteries Committee, oh yes, and the Rookwood Necropolis Trust (alot of different capital-T Trusts!)... well, it is a potentially great project to record the condition and design of many of the historic vaults and grand monuments in Rookwood.

Using the techniques of archaeological surveys, coupled with the incredible power of GIS (Geographic Information System), we are hoping to create a permanent working record of monuments which will serve as a resource for future conservation works. By leveraging the experience and dedication of volunteers to complete the baseline studies, we will be able to document indepth conservation information which help both in managing these historic resources and in applying for targeted grants to help with actual physical conservation maintenance and repairs.

The survey forms are being designed in from my experience in conducting safety surveys and monument recordings over the past 20 years, in consultation with a range of cemetery conservation experts... and attempting to be consistent with international standards for naming and identifying materials and deterioration. The database and GIS are being constructed by Gary Luke of the Jewish Cemetery Trust. The volunteers, well, it looks like the Friends of Rookwood might be taking over much of the actual work of the project... I gave a presentation to them, and, well, it became clear that they are much better equipped and organised than I am... and that, really, it will be my job to help with the training and monumental masonry/conservation side of things... but, if anyone can actually see the work through, it's going to be them... ...and any other volunteers who would like to join in! If you're interested in more information, please have a look at the project website... though please note that it is very much a work-in-progress.

We're hoping to do a few dry-runs in August and then actually start some recording days in September...

The project website is: http://sites.google.com/site/rookwoodmonuments/
and the Friends of Rookwood are at: http://www.friendsofrookwoodinc.org.au/

We should be posting our training/workday schedule within the next few weeks...

Back to Canada

2011-07-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'm heading to Canada for 3 weeks to look after my Dad– and to try and peck away at the 575 monuments I have left on my To Do list at Woodlawn.

By the time we established an Annual Safety Survey in 1998, the on-going monument repair project had already seen 1500 gravestone repaired... but they had been limited by the limitations in my skills and experience, and the reliance on government funded student labour (great, but not technically skilled or experienced... at least until the end of the summer).

With a focus on safety– starting with the safety of the public but extending to staff and then to the safety of the historic monuments themselves– we have completed over 5000 repairs at Woodlawn Cemetery... all the while trying to ensure the long-term preservation of monuments through following best-practice conservation techniques to the greatest extent possible given the importance of ensuring long-term safety on the grounds.

This year, Kate Paterson should be able to help me again, if she's got her Ph.D mostly done, and I'm hoping to get a few of the remaining safety issues addressed....

If you're interested in cemetery conservation and gravestone repairs in a Canadian context, I have posted a good deal of material on the Historic Monument Care portion of the Woodlawn site over the years: http://guelpharts.ca/woodlawncemetery/section.php?sid=40

PS: There's also lots of photographs of Woodlawn in my monthly landscape photos on the Guelph Arts website available at:
http://guelpharts.ca/woodlawncemetery/photomedia-listing.php?gid=30

It's summer in Canada... cherry & blueberry season!

Work in the Jewish Old Ground

2011-07-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

Last year we took on a great project with the Jewish Cemetery Trust to complete a bunch of work in the Jewish Old Ground. The Trust is working towards a goal of fully maintaining and caring for all the monuments in their cemetery... and we are happy to be getting to opportunity to play a part in it all.

The project so far has been great, but two monuments have poised particular difficulties. Jack Fisher, the Chairman of the Jewish Cemetery Trust, set us a real challenge by asking us to include two historic marble slabs which had been badly broken, possibly by repeated vandalism, many years ago. I've done a bunch of monuments with complex breaks... but had never done a marble slab in so many pieces (in Canada, it's only with limestone bases that I've had that many pieces)... but I knew that it could be done (as the actual stone was still physically strong)... and that my co-worker Grahame and I would love to do it.

I can't say that it was a great decision financially for MiM... 'cause it certainly took alot more that the 10 hours that we were each supposed to have for it... but we did our best to minimise the actual costs to MiM and impacts by only working on the SIMMON and NATHAN stones when we had slow periods or rain-days.

We did most of the drilling in our mason's lodge... which took a good deal of rainy-day time... but even the reinstallation required patience as we did it in stages. It would have been easier to glue the pieces together on a board.. but that inevitably leads to excessive epoxy use.. uncleaned-up spills on the back... and a lack of good stone-to-stone contact. With a fragile multi-piece monument like this, it also risks real damage to the stone during the transport and reinstallation.

They are not yet unveiled, as the mortar is still curing, but they are up and all together and the gaps (which ended up being surprisingly few) are filled. The marble in all reinstalled using conservation hidden-pin repairs where stone-to-stone contact is ensured by limiting the use of epoxy to the pin holes (with a few spot applications for the very smallest of the pieces). This takes alot longer and alot more care and skill... but is vital for the long-term health of the monument: natural water movement through the stone is restored... and the permeable lime mortar used to fill the joints acts sacrificially as a site of evaporation and soluble salt concentration which concentrates weathering and pollutant damage into the replaceable mortar instead of the historic fabric.

The NATHAN stone during reinstallation work...

Grahame (with Matthew helping) installing pieces of the SIMMON monument.

Sneak peek of the SIMMON stone as Grahame was doing the mortaring work...

Sunken Graves after 100 Years

2011-06-08T01:02:00.000-07:00

I'm just back from a fantastic holiday in Broken Hill, Burra, and Adelaide. Amazing industrial heritage... fascinating places... big skies... Libby and I had a great trip. I don't think that I got a real understanding of the outback, however, because of all the rain they've been having in the last year....

One fascinating effect, however, has been the crazy appearance of historic cemeteries in Broken Hill, Burra, and the surrounding area. I dragged Libby to cemeteries all over... mostly to see the types of monuments and the longevity of various stones (and particularly of Mintaro slate... but that's another story)... and everywhere it was the same. Deep sharp-sided coffin-shaped sunken graves all over. What's amazing is that these are historic graves... 1870s... 1920s... right up to recent ones... they are collapsed all over. The council workers or cemetery staff at Broken Hill had a mountain of blue metal and were clearly trying to make the place safe... but it was bizarre.

The coffin shape, which is very foreign to North American eyes (havng been switched for rectangular caskets 50 or 100 years ago), can be clearly seen.

Above: a newly sunken grave beside the oldest monument at Broken Hill cemetery!

Lead Lettering

2011-03-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

Matthew, Grahame & I are all continuing our slow progress in mastering the old art of lead lettering. Gordon Brown, our wonderful teacher and a living icon at Rookwood, is not as active and well as we'd all wish him to be, but we are endeavouring to work our way up to filling at least a good part of his footsteps...

Here's some photos of the stages in a practice job I've been doing for some friends... the final plaque is to be installed in the space of two bricks. Here I'm pencilling in the letters... using a great art deco font based on the one at the Lawrence Hargrave house in Point Piper.

The next step is completing v-cut lettering. Grahame and Matthew have been mentoring me in it... and I'm happy to report that I'm coming along. Still very slow... and with a long way to go, but becoming precise... and starting to get a result which I'm at least half happy with....

Here's the panel in progress... laid out along with my tungsten-carbide lettering chisels and lightest mallet.

The v-cut letters ready for leading.

The lead lettering is a slow progress... at least for us so far: where Gordon Brown said a good tradesman was expected to complete 60 letters a day (layout, cut, lead, clean)... I think I'm up to maybe 6... Matthew may be at about 8... and Grahame's not saying... but, we're definitely not up to the old standards yet!

Here's the letters ready for the final tapping-in and shaping...

I'll do some more posts on the techniques... or maybe I'll try and get Gordon to do a guest entry (as he's written up quite alot of reference material on the old lettering techniques)... but essentially it involves drilling angled holes into the letters, cutting lead into thin strips, shaping the letter roughly in lead, pounding the lead in with an ebonite mallet (also called vulcanite it is a hardened rubber product which is just softer than marble... allowing you to pound in the lead without leaving impact marks on the stone), cutting back the excess, pounding the lead in again, cutting back the excess and starting to form the letter, tapping- in the lead again, cutting the letter forms, giving a flat-face final tapping-in, cutting the final form, and then cleaning and finishing.

I'll post some photos of the final plaque after its installed...

Here's a photo of a finished shadow lettering plaque I did for this year's HIDDEN Art Show at Rookwood...

Still a carving addict...

2011-01-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I've not been very active in my blogging... I'm afraid that I've become even more of a carving addict than ever!

I've got some very interesting (at least to me!) work on the go... most based on neolithic and iron-age Cycladic marble designs... but interrupted with a secret-santa gift of a small sandstone monument with raised lettering (my first)... and I'm still struggling to complete the intricate Celtic knotwork that I started last Christmas.

PS: I've got some draft blog entries that I wrote while off-line on the train commute... and will try and post them... and back-date them to the actual time that they were written. Sorry if things end up out of order! (Maybe this new year I'll be good and more regular in posting... though I am very tempted to go out to the backyard right now and work on my current footed bowl...!)

Jewish Old Ground

2010-10-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

We've been given a fantastic opportunity to complete a significant project for the Jewish Cemetery Trust... including a wide range of maintenance and repair jobs. At the moment, we are concentrating on completing the maintenance work as we await our approval of our application for a Standard Exemption from the Heritage Branch.

We are following stringent specifications for good practice maintenance and repair work... using training lime mortars, poulticing, and a variety of conservation techniques emerging from the National Trust (NSW) Guidelines for Cemetery Conservation, ongoing discussions with the Heritage Branch, as well as technical expertise and training from Scotland, Denmark, Canada, etc... as well as guidance from the Burra Charter and ICOMOS (the International Council of Monuments and Sites).

The project is a great one... and should integrate well with the Jewish Cemetery Trust's plans for comprehensive repair works... possibly as well as a National Trust appeal on behalf of the trust for tax-deductable donations to fund the conservation work.

Best of all, it's an opportunity to jump-start the sharing of experience & specifications that I've been meaning to try to get online and out for comment. The commitment of the Jewish Cemetery Trust, including the Chairman Jack Fisher, the trustee most dedicated to the Old Ground and heritage issues Gary Luke, and the actual staff on the grounds (is going to help drive the project... I've promised to do a good job of reporting to them... which should mean that I'll be able to do a good job of sharing our progress and starting a discussion with all of you).

Mapping Success... and Failure

2010-10-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Well, the first phase of the mapping project is done! And it's all come together beautifully. After much negotiation and tweaking in the presentation, we've got a series of pdf maps showing the actual plans of all the old sections in the original Anglican No. 1 Cemetery. This is the area covered under the State Heritage Listing (previously protected by a Permanent Conservation Order)... with the exception of the "public" graves. Historically called "pauper sections", there are not as many monuments in these areas... making the piecing together of the pattern of graves very difficult... if not impossible. (We've left them for the final phase in the mapping project... but will need alot of time... and we might need some help!)

All the maps are available on the office servers... but, and it's a big but... serving them over the internet, given their size (1-3MB) and the overwhelming success of the online database grave locating service, well, it would cost the cemetery an additional 60 to 80 dollars a day in bandwidth charges. We are looking at other options, and also trying to come up with a funding mechanism, but, for the moment, we are stalled at the stage of trying to make them public. At least they are done... and will stay done... and will feed into the continuing plans to serve them via Google Maps and, most wonderfully, as an overlay on Google Earth.

Hopefully I'll have some good news about this situation soon... the upside is that internet costs are always going down... and Google services seem to be continually going up....

Off-the-top-of-my-head, I think the completions are:
Sections A, AA, AAA, AAAA, B, BB, BBB, C, CC, CCC, D, DD, E, EE, F, FF, G, GG & S, and
Sections 1, 2, 3, 4
Most of these sections had no computer plan or map, and were only recorded through copies of an 1880s plan... which then had to be ground-truthed and corrected ('cause they didn't always stick with the plan... and, sometimes, the hand-numbering led them to skip numbers or otherwise gain inconsistencies). A number of sections, however, had no surviving plan: they were reconstructed from actually surveying the monuments on the ground.

Here's a sample map, extra compressed so that I can sneak it under the bar for this blog... but a taster for the work that has been done.... The format is .png but the real maps are in pdf so they are easily printed anywhere...

Rookwood's Da Vinci Code?

2010-09-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Is there a hidden code written into the historic design of Rookwood?

It all happened while I was working on a rather quick and informal submission for the Visual Significance Survey. Its a project of the Rookwood Necropolis Trust– a new committee formed by the Department of Lands to help co-ordinate the various denominational trust (and probably intended to try and amalgamate them if possible) and it is one aspect of their work to formulate a new Plan of Management for Rookwood. (I think they are encouraging public submissions and comments– but they are also under some sort of time restraint & need to show results soon).
I was trying to confirm some observations that one can see from the grounds... namely:
At dawn, the sun rises beside what is now the CBD and illuminates the highrises and the harbour bridge creating an immediate link between the observer and the city. In terms of the historic landscape, this view would have been clearer (without the overgrowth inside the Sections, and without the trees being so large) and the link to the city much more important. Instead of the cemetery seeming to be in the middle of nowhere, many miles outside the built up areas of Sydney in the late 1800s, there would have been a direct visual connection with the community, with the church spires and maybe some early street lights....

So I opened Google Earth to double-check. Oh yes. Very much East... it's obvious and one draws a line and keeps it at 90 degrees. But wait: that's exact. How East? A line drawn at 90.00 degrees from the centre of Necropolis Circuit (the physical and focal heart of the original design for "The Necropolis at Haslem's Creek" passes into downtown AND THROUGH ST JAMES CHURCH. It misses the spire by about 15 metres over the 15 kilometres... ie a 99.99% concordance. Whether serendipity or design, well, it's hard to prove design... but hard to believe in a chance that incredibly slim.
Regardless, however, it IS clear what a connection this makes with Sydney. In the Old Anglican No. 1 Cemetery, the majority of the graves face East. Standing at the foot, or entering the cemetery and walking along the near-East facing avenues, the view to Sydney would be obvious... as it would have been to the surveyors and designers of the Anglican cemetery (who, interestingly, refused to use the initial curvilinear plan of the government designer in order to have linear avenues with central and corner features).
Although now obscured by the mature araucarias (Bunyas, Hoops, Cook Island, & Norfolk Island 'pines') as well as various self-sown trees and overgrown shrubs, when visible, the visual link to Sydney evokes a deep feeling of connectedness. At dawn, especially– like a rising moon seeming so much larger than it does when higher up in the sky– Sydney skyscrapers and the harbour bridge loom large and seem close.
In the 1860s and 70s, when Rookwood Necropolis was first operating, this connection would have been vital: a visual proof that the cemetery was not in the middle of nowhere... despite its real distance from Sydney!

View Rookwood's Da Vinci Code in a larger map

Interestingly, the very word ORIENTATION originates in the idea of facing east. Related to the siting of churches, it was nevertheless the process of designing something such that it faced the ORIENT ie East.

Are there other mystical design elements in Rookwood? I'll let you know if I find any more strange coincidences!

PS: One person who believes that they have found secret patterns in Rookwood is Hu Jin Kok who has studied the Old Chinese area in the General No. 1 Cemetery. It would certainly not be surprising if the design of the area, including the Quong Sin Tong monument is highly purposeful and meaningful given the Chinese cultural traditions of integrating landscape designs into, well, greater landscapes and understandings of cosmic significance. He believes he has found symbols and codes of the Hung Men Society in the tombstones, the Quong Sin Tong monument and the overarching design of the Old Chinese section. See Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney: Chinese Section 1: 1868-1920 for more information... (it's available at the State Reference Library).

If the map is not displaying well, you can try this link: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=-33.869434,151.131152&spn=0.137829,0.20977&t=h&z=13&msid=114718625818017715056.00048fb3efede90e25b80.

Mapping continued...

2010-08-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

We're now thinking about using the embedded Google Maps as a kind of approachable first step towards our comprehesive mapping project...

The following is a test of how a single section might be represented... ie it could accompany search results or be the front page for a particular section... and then also include links to downloadable maps (pdfs of the grave plan layout, kmz files for google earth overlays... etc)

View Section 13 Test in a larger map

I've added an additional map showing Section B...
but will then be trying to see what happens if I update that map...
and what occurs when I delete it from its home in MyMaps

View Section B in a larger map

Map Testing

2010-08-10T14:52:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of our mapping blitz... how long a journey it will be, and, well, I don't really have any idea...!

The good news is, however, that Google seems to have, in the last 4 months, made things even easier and better... and it already seemed like the possibilities were great... it just may be that we will be making public some wonderful and wonderfully accessible maps to the Anglican & General parts of Rookwood... soon... soonish...!

Here is a little test and maybe a taster of things to come...
I am hoping that you will be able to view the following through your browser... and that it promises live access to dynamic maps if you are walking around with your iPhone, iPad or Android phone...

The first map (which is a draft only and very much the start of a work in progress) shows many of the Sections in the Anglican & General Trusts' area of Rookwood.

View Rookwood Necropolis AGT Sections in a larger map

The second shows the general mapping progress as of February 2010... but should highlight other possibilities in how we may be able to serve information to you!

View Completed Mapping in a larger map

Back At It... Soon!

2010-08-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in the land of sandstone... but not yet at work as I have so much to do:
* get over the 25 hour flight
* get used to day and night being reversed
* get used to the extreme cold! (Nobody in Canada actually beleives or understands how cold winter can be in Sydney. Living in insulated houses with central heating... well, it's way warmer in winter even if it's -20C outside... it never below 18C inside. As an ex-Canadian, I can attest to it: Canadians are wimps about being cold inside. Outside, all rugged up with there technical gear of toques, scarves, and polar gloves & coats... it's a different story...)

I had to say goodbye to my -100C boots!

me with my -100C boots

DAKOTA PROPAQ COMPOSITE -100C

* there's also days of official paperwork to do... which, somehow, paralyzes me much more than any work challenge. Digging a foundation or grave in a tight location, drilling for a tricky hidden pin repair... they're nothing compared with trying to work out how to fill in FORM 169 Application for a CERS Certificate of Evidence of Resident Status... I think I've filled in over 200 pages of official paperwork for Canada and Australia in the past 5 years... and I've struggled!

Closing a Chapter... 12 years later

2010-07-30T14:47:00.000-07:00

The BROCK monument: Woodlawn Cemetery, Block O, Lot 324

Today we finally reinstalled the last of the granite obelisks we identified as unsafe at Woodlawn in 1998. The Brock monument (not a relation, unfortunately, to the Canadian/British hero who defeated the invading Americans in the War of 1812 and kept Canada its own country), is a massive granite spire which was all-too-ready to fall (requiring only the pressure of my index finger to start the spire moving) during the first Safety Survey of Woodlawn Cemetery. In 1998, I was charged with identifying the twenty most dangerous monuments in the cemetery... for us to target for repair. What we found, however, was alarming: 94 monuments required only minor contact to create movement... and 6 of those were so dangerous (ready to fall under the pressure of only a pinkie finger) that they had to be taken down immediately.
We ended up repairing as many as possible in situ, but had to take down and place in storage ~40 massive granite spires. Given the number of other monuments requiring repair (identified as Safety/Priority Class 2 or 3... and later 4 & 5), and the limited resources available (especially backhoe time, concrete for massive monolithic foundations, etc), we agreed to a goal of reinstalling 3 granite spires each year...
This year, with a Rotary Hammer Drill (thanks Helmut & Robbo!), a dedicated Monument Assistant (Kate!), and lots of backhoe time, we were able to finish off the last 10... in addition to 9 others which had become a priority in the intervening years.

The BROCK monument in 1998: leaning heavily, resting on a single small stone under one corner without a foundation, unsealed and not pinned...

Taking down the dangerous spire was a mammoth undertaking....

It was cold... but the snow was a good cushion just in case anything slipped...

There's still some work to do in Block F, with S/P Class 2 monuments that include a number of tall granite spires, but the 1998 removals are all out of storage and we have reinstalled all of the granite monuments which had fallen in the 1970s, 80s and 90's.

The Brock monument reinstalled... with full foundation (below the 4' frost line), with each layer bedded and set and with a 450mm long pin of 13mm diameter stainless steel securing the spire from ever being a danger again. (Note that the pin is drilled to fit the upper hole which is in dry-mode {without epoxy} such that the monument can be lifted apart... it just cannot be pushed down or fall accidentally: reversibility is vital for good conservation work!)

To Canada

2010-05-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't been that regular a contributor... and, I'm afraid, I'm likely to be even worse for the next three months (until August) as I've just got my Australian Permanent Resident status. Paradoxically, it means that I'm free to leave! I'm heading back to Guelph (Ontario, Canada) to hang with family & friends... and try to finish my work at Woodlawn where I'm completed 4700 of the ~5400 monuments requiring maintenance or repair. I'll be updating my Historic Monument Care website while there.... If your interested, there are also photo galleries of landscape, art, & nature shots taken at Woodlawn: with a photo for each month over a number of years. I'm pretty happy with some of the pics... and there's certainly a wide range... and very different vistas from anything that we see at Rookwood!

Addendum July 2010:

Here's some photos I've taken this summer... highlighting the different fauna...

Groundhog (cute varmit)

Massive wasp with 100mm long needle... they were pumping something in... or out... of tiny holes they were boring in an old dead sugar maple tree.

Cicada emerging from its old skin...

Repairing Vandalism in Wollongong

2010-04-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

We've just gotten back from a 2 day expedition to start repairs to some terrible vandalism at Wollongong- the old Wesleyan/Presbyterian grounds of the Wollongong General Cemetery.

It's taken over a year to actually start work– I think there's been all sorts of problems with issues like whose going to pay... and the repairs have waited for the installation of a tall fence to ensure that the damage isn't repeated right away.

We met with some of the great & dedicated volunteerrs who have worked to document the monuments, map the cemetery, and, sadly, record all of the considerable vandalism damage. It was great to meet the volunteers, though, and we will all certainly be lobbying to work together again soon!

In two days – with a fun overnight stay at the Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort (though we didn't end up with much time to explore the 'leisure' or 'surf' aspects) – we completed most of the targetted 14 repairs plus 1 additional high priority safety concern. The lime putty mortar work will, however, have to await a longer-term project so that we can ensure proper aftercare for the setting mortar.

The main difficulties we faced was not with the scope of the damage – but, interestingly, with differences in philosophical approach... and subsequent corollaries in how, exactly, to complete repair work in the best possible fashion...!

Stone/Masonry

2010-03-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

It's a funny thing, but most of the 'monumental stonemasonry' that we do, well, it doesn't really seem like stone-masonry. Yes, sure, it's monumental, and it involves stone, but so much of it is fixing & gluing, foundations,... I guess, actually, it really is stonemasonry but...
Today we were carving massive letters in stone. It's part of the work that we (MiM) are doing as sponsors of the HIDDEN sculpture exhibition which starts next Wednesday and is open (and free) for a month afterwards. It's just within Rooky at the Strathfield entrance off Centenary Drive– beside Reflections Cafe.
We're doing some letters to guide people to the show and highlight the location... it's been a great and interesting challenge... and really feels like good stone-masonry!

Hidden shadow letters... if you can read them... well, it's all the work of your imagination!
The letters themselves are not carved in at all.
I found an old gravestone in the area of Section CC with these letters... and thought how wonderful they are.... Very glad to get a chance to try the style out... 'though I couldn't find the old gravestone when I looked for it... if only I hadn't been almost late for work that earlier day, I'd have taken a photo of the original!

The tap-tap-tap of mallets and chisels was a wonderful change from the loud and dusty powertools we use every other day.

Grahame at work with a mallet...

Matthew's noiser as he uses a dummy hammer

Carving Addict

2010-02-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

Miniature marble antefix

I must admit that I've become a carving addict.

Shaping marble to make some eggs...

My first finished egg!

I mean to do other things... but, somehow, whenever I've got some free moments, well, my thoughts turn to carving and I get out my tools if I have any time at all... or sketch plans or letters or read my historic ornament pattern books or... well, you get the picture.

Experimenting with Celtic spirals in the style of the Aberlemno Cross

I've been neglecting almost everything. [I have managed to still do a little food shopping and cooking and I haven't quite neglected to spend time with Libby... but, otherwise, I've been bad.] Neglecting email. Failing to call family and friends in Canada. Lots of great research projects neglected (including investigating Natural Hydraulic Lime versus cement in the 1870's through 1900s, mapping Rookwood, making sense of the layout in Old Chinese, reporting on the RAMSAY vault, reading old monumental mason FA ARNOLD's papers in the Mitchell Library... so many great things to do!). Even this blog, which I agreed to volunteer for and do a post a week... well, my own blog is pretty well silent... and I've hardly posted anything more on my youtube channel except a short movie of Rainbow Lorikeets in an Illawarra Flametree.

I learned from this: don't ever try and do Celtic knotwork... it takes forever!

There's too much to learn... and try... and do!

My next project is to try and create some Cycladic figurines... in the style of the so-called "Ashmolean Master"....

This figurine is almost finished...!

Bunya Smoko

2010-01-28T00:16:00.000-08:00

Bunya trees are awesome.

Not only have they survived from Jurassic times with their dinosaur-resistant leaves like platemail armour... not only do they tower over Rookwood (and Section A) with their wonderful and instantly-recognisable shape... they also provide great smoko snacks, delivered onsite...!

The first time I tried a Bunya nut– guided by solid info. that Bunya nuts really are edible (raw, cooked, roasted, boiled,... however you want....) Well, my first Bunya nut experience wasn't great. It tasted of nothing much but had a vague accent of pine cleanser mixed with diesel. I think it had sat around in the sun too long.

As I walked into work last week – after a night of heavy winds – a massive cone blocked my way past Section AA. Alright, already, I thought: I'll give you another try.

The 10 minutes it took me to open the hull as I walked to the Anglican & General Trusts office gave me a clue that maybe my earlier one was overripe (it was so much easier to open).

The nut was massive...
and,
it turned out:
d--- tasty!

For smoko, then, these mighty trees which add so much to the historic and natural character of the place, well, they also gave me my morning treat.

By lunch, I definitely had a taste for them and set about collecting some for home... and friends... all-the-while considering possible recipes.

Firstly, the taste and texture is reminiscent of pine nuts... just 40 times the size... and without the great expence. Bunya nut pesto, then, was an obvious choice.

And that became dinner.
The only problem was that, with the nuts so massive... I ended up making 3 batches of pesto (good for, say, 6 or 8 serving each)... and didn't make a dint in my collection of Bunya nuts.

Australia Day obviously called for some more Bunya work: cookies with choc. chips and also Macadamia nuts. Good too... but the chocolate was a bit overpowering. Supposedly you can use Bunya nuts for an oatmeal/starchy substitute... so I'm going to work on some oatmeal-Bunya-sultana cookies (once this heat and humidity breaks... if it breaks...)

OF COURSE: it's important that I warn you that Monuments in Memoriam and the Anglican & General Trusts in no way encourage or condone people to eat found food... nor stand under Bunya trees in December through March when those 5kg cones might just drop from a towering height.
So far, though, every cone I've seen down has followed nights of heavy winds: still... please take care! The stonemasonry team have been discussing it... and we're are hoping to hear one drop sometime... as long as we are not too close....

I've given away a bunch now... and used up much of our stock (Rhonda's right: they do taste better cooked... but there's something magic about them raw). I'm waiting for the aftermath of the next night of high winds: I have my eyes out on some massive cones 40m up in Section AA...

Libby found this great online document with piles of information on Bunyas...

http://fennerschool-associated.anu.edu.au/environhist/links/publications/anzfh/anzfh2haebich.pdf

(One note: if roasting them, be careful about the heat 'cause I can attest that they really will explode in the oven if you insist on cranking it to 250).

Conservation of Cemeteries

2010-01-06T11:30:00.000-08:00

My conservation mentor in Canada– Tamara Anson-Cartwright– has been encouraging me to write up my understanding of the importance and value of conserving monuments (specifically for presentation to the Ontario Association of Cemeteries and Funeral Professionals [in Canada] but hopefully to be useful generally). It's not that I'm some sort of profound world expert: instead, I think, its for the same reason that she & Per Neumeyer {late conservation master stonemason and friend to whom I owe so much} so appreciated having me help in teaching the Essentials for Monument Care course: because I'm a person who started out as a simple cemetery worker. I have come to care and understand the value and beauty of cemeteries from (simply) working in them. Maybe I'm an insider amongst the motley characters who work in cemeteries... part of a long continuing tradition of sextants, gravediggers, and now 'burial technicians' as the industry insiders re-brand us.

Cemetery landscapes are both irreplaceable and unlike any other public spaces in our world. (The closest equivalent in probably historic sites and ruins.) Cemeteries comprise a unique combination of public and private space: being both a publically accessible as a park encouraging contemplation and passive enjoyment of nature; and, a place embodying specific histories and private grief.

The heritage value of cemeteries like Rookwood is not replaceable: the intact and often untouched plantings, the monuments, the objects historically placed on graves, the designs and carvings and symbolism....
Cemeteries embody history. Just as they are a safe and enduring space for us to place our dead (and celebrate lives as we work through our griefs), they become living records of our understandings of life and death, of meanings symbolised through carving, and, well, through symbols permanently etched in stone. These meaning emerge from all sorts of individual family stories, collating and extending into a actualisation and realisation of how society as a whole has understood it's place in the world.... And, greatest of all, this is recorded in cemeteries over a long stretch of time....

In Rookwood, you can literally walk through different decades cultural understandings, of architectural styles... simply by moving through different sections and blocks of the cemetery. Likewise, differences between cultural groups in recorded in the different denominational areas... and even in the different managemental policies and maintenance regimes now enacted upon those areas. So much written in the place. (One of my favourites is the Old General... but that's another story.)

Stone carving

2010-01-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

Carving marble is amazing.

I've always wanted to... but never actually got around to it and making the time.... That, and the lack of a ready supply. Well, I should have started years ago.... it's great fun and absolutely wonderful to work with.

For my first piece, I wanted to be as artistic and old-school as I could: I resolved to try and carve a (slightly miniature) classical antefix... and complete it using only a mallet & chisels. I eventually succumbed to also using my bastard rasp (for shaping the back)... but otherwise stayed true to my resolution. I also resolved to complete the carving without measurements... to see if I could replicate the pattern and form through pencil drawing and then execute that into stone carving.

Turns out that it's really not all that hard... and was really good fun. Of course, the lovely sharp tungsten carbide chisels I was using are hardly authentic to historic tools, but, well, I wouldn't go without them... at least not for now.

Classical temples often were decorated with an acroteria at the apex of the roof, and then often had a series of antifixes on the corners and sometimes along the line of the sides of the roof tiles. I've always loved the form of them, and admired the palmate designs often found on them (and also on grave stelae... a future project). I've based mine directly on a sketch from Franz Meyer's Handbook of Ornament (1892) showing an antefix from the Temple of Jupitor Stator in Rome.

At Christmas, I noticed that my partner Libby's mom has a collection of stone eggs... so that's my on-going project... and a future post...

Discovery

2009-12-21T20:29:00.000-08:00

Today in the Section A Maintenance Project we had one of those experiences which makes the job feel worthwhile. We were lifting over a broken monument in order to be able to repair it.

It had clearly been lying, face down, in the ground for ages... the front had sunk deeply into the soil. The sandstone appeared to be in good enough condition that the monument should be repairable. The base, although slumped forward due to (historic) coffin collapse, was definitely functional.

The safest way of turning the large stele (gravestone) over is to dig around the edges (being extremely careful to avoid touching the monument with the shovel) and then simply lift it up sideways by hand and lower it onto wood. Modern machinery, for all it's conveniences, exposes the stone to much greater risk of damage: chipping to the edges and even catastrophic fracturing in the centre if the load puts tensional instead of compressional stress onto the weathered (and thus weakened) sandstone.

The tough part is, however, that initial moment when the stone is lifted: will it be intact? Is there horrible damage on the surface? There is a kind of dread that I have when I do this: as I have seen, in Canada, stones whose faces have been destroyed by frost, salt, and/or ant damage.

Today, though, we found, instead, a wonderfully intact wonderfully-carved stone. It probably has not been in the ground quite as long as I had thought... say 20 or 30 years... and is eminently repairable. We will soon have it safely reinstalled: the gravestone will once again mark its grave, the inscription will be accessible, this tiny portion of Rookwood will be reinstated, maintained, preserved to be handed on to the future....

On cleaning out the base, which we completed as we were attempting to desalinate the stele (at least for the most soluble of salts), we discovered why the monument had fallen: the original mason did not use enough cementitious material (apparently an early form of cement or a strong natural hydraulic lime) in the groove: the mortar never contacted the tongue... the stone was never properly set or held in place.

HOT!

2009-12-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

It does get hot in Canada. It even gets to 40 degrees. But, I'm afraid, it's not the same 40 degrees as here: I used to know that the UV Index was a scale of 1 to 10.

Australia is a different place: the sunburnt land is like a scorched land where you're afraid to pick up a tool if you left it in the sun for smoko, where you can actually feel the sun burning exposed skin when the UV reaches impossible numbers... 11... 12... 13. Crazy.

Today, in Section A, I knew that I was lucky. In the middle of the wonderful old heart of Rookwood, Damian & I had some shade and some breeze: but I was singing an old Prince Buster Ska song all day– "This town is too hot". I'm doing okay in the heat, and Damian & I managed to get some good work done, but I've learned a real respect for Australians over last summer and now this one. Maybe they're a bit soft in the winter (from a Canadian perspective), but they're troopers in the heat. Good on ya!

(And good on Derek, the GM of the Anglican & General Trusts, who sent us home early. I'm on the train now [airconditioned thankfully]... with some afternoon carving and a cold drink soon!)

I Love This Place

2009-12-01T13:05:00.000-08:00

I love this place.

I didn't think I would, but I do.

When I first came over from Canada– to marry Libby the lovely wonderful Australian I met volunteering on an archaeology project in Greece–, well, I knew things would be different, but I had not imagined how very much different my life would be.... Likewise, when I came to Rookwood, I could not believe the place: incredibly huge, such crazy variety of trees & plans & monuments– absolutely fantastic for someone like me with a lifelong passion for old stones & trees & cemeteries.

Derek Williams, the General Manager of the Anglican & General Trusts, had invited me to come and have a look at Rookwood on the basis of the cemetery conservation work that I have done in Canada & which I had presented to the National Trust of Australia (NSW) Cemeteries Committee. Little did I know what awaited me within the gates, the future that would embrace me here, or... that it was a 20 minute walk to find the office even after I was INSIDE the cemetery: even with a map I was completely overwhelmed. And the sun: it burned! The whole place looking both verdant and scorched... overgrown and sunburnt. Fantastic.

During my first official tour of Rookwood, I met Gordon Brown: the spectacular & venerable monumental inscriber, mason, and lead-letterer who has inhabited Rooky for ages (say 50 years)... just like his father before him. His warm welcome, great stories, and friendly appeal that 'we could use some more good people'... well, I already started to get a feeling, albeit very slight, of home.

Enough already: I meant to just start this blog by quickly saying that I have come to love this place... and I'm hoping to share photos and stories and maps and some of the all sorts of interesting things that are discoveries to me as I work here... and from my 20 minute walk inside work every morning!