GS-TM-11; Alexander Moffat Allan : Old Melbourne Cemetery, c. 1920; Miller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.; Photograph of a simple headstone with a triangular top placed over the remains of Alexander Moffat Allan. Over time the stone has leaned about 20 degrees to the right. Long grass is at the foot of the headstone and an iron railing fence is in the background, separating the cemetery from a road.
The inscription on the tombstone is very clearly carved with the name separated from rest of the text by what looks like a mortared join in the stone.
The inscription reads:
SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
ALEXr M ALLAN
who was treacherously
speared to death by the
aborigines of this colony
at his station Lodden River
on the morning of the 13th
of March 1842 in the 27th
year of his age
From Selby's Memorial History of Melbourne (p.63): "We are told in the letters of the old pioneers that Allan had a small cattle station in the Loddon district. After being speared by the natives he died quickly ... The natives had intended to kill Allan's brother, who disliked them, but they did not care to do it themselves, and therefore called in three men from another tribe, and arranged with them for the murder. That day Alexander Allan took his brother's place and was murdered by mistake. He had always been friendly to them, and the mistake irritated the natives, and they resolved still to kill his brother, so the brother left the colony."
This image is attributed to Everard Studley Miller who photographed many graves and tombstones in the Old Melbourne Cemetery (established in 1837) in the 1920s as part of a project led by Isaac Selby to record and commemorate all aspects of Melbourne's second cemetery (the first being at Flagstaff Hill). The RHSV holds original glass negatives and albums of the photographs from this project.
One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund.
For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.; Photograph; Images collection![Photography Photography](/wp-content/plugins/ehive-search/images/catalogue_photography.png)
![Photography Photography](/wp-content/plugins/ehive-search/images/catalogue_photography.png)
GS-TM-13; Michael Carr and Michael Bulger : Old Melbourne Cemetery, c. 1920; Miller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.; Elevated photograph of headstone placed over the remains of Michael Carr, and his brother-in-law Michael Bulger. The stone, with triangular top with quarter-circular shoulders, takes up the bottom half of the image. A railing, trees and memorials are in the background.
Selby writes that this tombstone is "the earliest Catholic memorial that remained down to the time of exhuming".
Unfortunately, because the photographer is looking down on the headstone, the inscription is difficult to read; and the reading isn't helped by the faded image. However, the same image in photograph form is clearer.
The decorative motif at the top of the stone shows a cross above IHS within a sun symbol, surrounded by the words, GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO.
Followed by:
Memento Mori
This Stone is Erected by
Mrs. Catherine Carr widow
of the late Mr. Michael Carr
late of Dublin who departed
this life on the 19th of
October 1839 Aged 36 Years
Also her Brother
Mr. Michael Bulger who
Departed this Life on the
11th of March 1841
Aged 29 Years
Requiescant in pace
Selby, in his Memorial History of Melbourne, tells us that, "[Carr] bought land at the first land sale, and was one of our earliest publicans. His burial was the sixth in this [RC] Division of the Cemetery."
Carr and Bulger were reinterred in Fawkner Cemetery, Section: Old Pioneers, Grave 388.
This image is attributed to Everard Studley Miller who photographed many graves and tombstones in the Old Melbourne Cemetery (established in 1837) in the 1920s as part of a project led by Isaac Selby to record and commemorate all aspects of Melbourne's second cemetery (the first being at Flagstaff Hill). The RHSV holds original glass negatives and albums of the photographs from this project.
One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund.
For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.; Photograph; Images collection![Photography Photography](/wp-content/plugins/ehive-search/images/catalogue_photography.png)
![Photography Photography](/wp-content/plugins/ehive-search/images/catalogue_photography.png)