Tuesday 19 February 2008

Camperdown Cemetery sandstone pediment

According to one source, this stone pediment came from the original Maritime Services Building built in the 1850s and commemorates the numerous naval personnel buried in the historic Camperdown Cemetery in inner Sydney. One mass grave holds the remains of the 1857 shipwrecks of the clipper ship the Dunbar (20 Aug 1857) and the barque Catherine Adamson (24 Oct 1857).

The Dunbar was a fully-rigged ship that was wrecked near the entrance to Sydney Harbour, with the loss of 121 lives. See here

The cemetery surrounds St Stephens Anglican Church in Church St, Newtown, just off the busy main road, King St. There are 18 000 people buried there, mainly between 1848 and when it closed (full) in 1867, Many of the graves were of paupers.

2 comments:

  1. That is a lovely clear image. What, pray tell, is a pediment? I have been to this cemetery but did not "do" the entire joint. But I do love churches and graveyards.

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  2. A wide, low-pitched gable surmounting the façade of a building in the Grecian style.

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