Gymbowen Cemetery re-discovered

Congratulations to all involved in having a sign erected at the Gymbowen Cemetery. Few people today were aware of its existence, and even fewer knew where it was located.

Gymbowen Cemetery, the row of pines are on the fenceline between Allotments 90B & 90C

The Gymbowen Cemetery was established on the east side of Marsh & Lowes Rd, south of Hennesseys Rd, in the Goroke Parish, alongside its boundary with the Gymbowen Parish.

5 acres 0 roods 16 perches of Allotment 90C were reserved for a Cemetery in June 1883. 

A further Extension to the north alongside Hennessey's Road, of 3 acres 3 roods 38 perches of Allotment 90C was gazetted in July 1911. 

In 1918 10 perches were excised from the Extension to create the sweeping bend into Marsh & Lowes Rd.

The sign is more than a sign, it details the record of the only known burials at the Cemetery. These and possibly others are in unmarked graves.

The earliest record is for Annie Bertram Byrne. Annie lived for 1 day in 1883. Both the Byrne & Bertram families lived in the district. Members of both families left in the migration to the Riverina in 1900s. Denis married Lucy in 1870. Their other children were Denis born in 1871, George 1873, Michael 1875, Mary Anne 1877. Edmund Bertram 1878, Alecia Jane 1879, William Bertram 1880, James Henry 1882-1883, Evelinne Stewart 1886, Bertram Roach 1888, John Blain 1890, Lucy Emily 1893. Both Annie Bertram & James Henry died in 1883, James' death place is recorded as Harrow.

Mary Frances Mottram also died in 1883, aged 10 months. Her father George Somerset took up land at Gymbowen in 1882 & 1883, but by 1890 was declared insolvent. He stated the causes were crop failures, family sickness & the pressure of his creditors. A son Peter had lived for 1 day when they lived at Mullagh in 1874.

Hugh Knight & his mother Janet, both died in the typhoid outbreak of 1889. William Henry lost his wife Janet, son Hugh, brothers Thomas & Alfred to typhoid fever. Bill too, was admitted to hospital, but recovered. (Cemetery Trustee David Houston's son also died of typhoid in 1888).

On 26th February 1895, 14 year-old William John Lear helped milk the cows but began vomiting blood and complaining of chest pain. After he was put to bed his mother found him lying on the floor dead. The doctor diagnosed syncope due to heart disease & accelerated by vomiting.

John Norman Frederick Scott was another childhood death at Gymbowen. Both his birth & death were registered in 1913. His siblings were Leila Annie born in 1904, Alexander Henry 1905, Peter 1907. Hugh Andrew 1908, Maurice 1911.

More than most the Gymbowen Cemetery shows the hardships & tribulations faced by young families in the district.

What nearly was

By chance, I happened to come across an entry in the Victorian Government Gazette referring to the Witchipool (Lake Buloke) Hospital,

And not just any hospital, this was for an infectious diseases hospital. 

The entry is for the 'site for a hospital or place for isolating persons suffering from small-pox, cholera, or other dangerous infectious or contagious disease'.
Why did the government of the day (in 1911) consider the need for a hospital? It was in 1900 that there was a major outbreak of bubonic plague in Sydney. It killed 103 people in 8 months and lead to the mass cleansing and demolition of slum housing in heavily populated areas like The Rocks. The Sydney event remains the most significant, but there were a further 12 major outbreaks eventuating in 1371 cases and 535 deaths in 27 locations, including Melbourne, around Australia between 1900 and 1925.

A street is hosed down in the mass cleansing in January 1900. State Library NSW

Witchipool is the name of the parish which encompasses Lake Buloke, Little Lake Buloke, part of the Donald township, west to Litchfield and north towards Massey. Witchipool is from the Aboriginal words for plant that grows on a hill. The farming district was originally named Litchfields.

 The Reservation of part of Allotment 12 temporarily set the land aside for the establishment of the hospital, but it never eventuated. The reservation was revoked in 1922.

It was a little concerning that they considered placing infectious patients between two water sources - the lake and the Richardson River. Typically for smallpox, if the patient survives the initial infection, they remain infectious for 3-4 weeks after the onset of the rash. Smallpox was declared globally eradicated in 1980.
Today, outbreaks of cholera still occasionally happen in northern Australia, and can be associated with algal blooms.

The area today

The 43 acre crescent-shaped site was situated away from centres of population, but still close to a railway and a highway. Would have made a wonderful abandoned building now.