THE EXAMINER EXTRA, Tuesday, November 22, 2011 A71
Surgeon
Convicts buried on
outskirts of town
RON MALLETT writes
that an estimated 320
prisoners were laid to
rest in the Launceston
Convict Burial Ground
between 1846 and
1874.
N 1845 Matthew
I
Forster, the
Comptroller-General
of Convicts, sought
permission from the
lieutenant governor of the
colony (then Sir John
Eardley-Wilmot) to
establish a burial ground
in Launceston exclusively
for the use of convicts.
The burial ground was
originally planned to be on
Pattersons Plains Road
above the racecourse (now
Elphin Road and
specifically between
Lawrence and Lyttleton
Streets).
This plan was approved
by the surveyor general.
It is not understood
exactly why, but the site
was shifted to one on the
extreme periphery of the
town in what is now Glen
Dhu.
Burials began in 1846
and it is estimated that
over the next 30 years that
about 320 people may have
been buried there.
The specific site is a
triangular area, on an
elevated piece of ground
between the very southern
end of Glen Dhu Road and
the bottom end of Norwich
Road.
It is now part of Rose
Land Reserve, a larger
fragment of land to which
the burial ground has been
linked with over time and
itself bordered by Rose
Lane, Westbury Road,
Norwich Street, Glen Dhu
Street, the last two
converging on Peel Street.
The establishment of a
burial ground for the
exclusive use of convicts
was a late development in
the history of
transportation in
Launceston.
Historian Dan Huon has
argued that the emphasis
on moral campaigning and
demonising of
transportation by the anti-
transportation movement
during the 1840s may
have inadvertently
intensified the
stigmatisation of
convictism in general.
Convictism was seen by
contemporary
commentators as being a
The convict cemetery in Glen Dhu.
Schoolchildren made paving bricks in 1998 to honour the memory of some of those
buried at the convict cemetery.
morally infectious that time, prisoners who
phenomenon, died while in servitude
undermining the fabric of were buried in the main
society. denominational
It is arguable that final cemeteries, albeit in
specific areas reserved for
positioning of the burial
ground may have them and perhaps pauper
burials.
represented the perceived
The process of convict
need of free society to
burial has traditionally
segregate themselves from
been regarded as collective
those it perceived as being
and ungodly. This view is
representative of a
now being challenged.
degenerative class.
Historical archaeologist
From 1846 in
Richard Tuffin has
Launceston, even in death,
the social barriers between recently argued that the
administrators of the
convict and free would be
maintained. convict system in Van
Diemens Land recognised
It is arguable that this that they were bound by a
reveals more about middle
duty of care to the convicts
class pretensions to moral who died while still in
superiority and their
service.
perceptions of the convict Unless they were in
class, than anything private service, it appears
specific about the convict
that the Convict
population itself.
Department paid for the
It is believed that until
costs associated with
burial.
Although often buried in
unconsecrated ground,
they were also provided
with Christian rites.
It is likely that several
of the graves in the
Pictures: PAUL SCAMBLER
Launceston convict burial
ground were marked
during the three decades it
was used.
While memorialisation
of convict graves was not
encouraged by the Convict
Department or the clergy,
there is evidence to
suggest that it did occur in
most burial places during
the period and throughout
the colony.
Isabella Mead, first
female curator of the
Queen Victoria Museum
and Art Gallery, in her
1958 essay on the site
made a reference to rude
wooden headstones rotting
as the site fell into disuse.
While many convicts did
not have families present
in the colonies during their
years of servitude, grave
markers were often a sign
of strong support networks
and genuine affection
within the convict
community and perhaps
between masters and
servants.
While the burial ground
was originally crown land,
the remainder of what is
now Rose Lane Reserve
was actually originally
granted to Mr Phillip
Oakden. The burial
ground was subsequently
part of a larger piece of
property utilised for the
production of bricks.
It was not unusual
during the 19th century
and the first half of the
20th century in
Launceston for old burial
grounds, either full or at
least neglected, to be
redeveloped.
Samuel Hutton and
Sons bought the land in
1912 and had their
brickworks on the corner
of Rose Lane and Glen
Dhu.
Over time, the entire
hillside was excavated
right up to Westbury
Road.
When human remains
were uncovered at the far
southern end of the site,
digging in that area
promptly ceased.
Hutton had to close the
whole site in the 1920s.
Soon after, ownership
was transferred to the
local council.
The area was
redeveloped into a reserve
through the use of dole
labour during the
Depression.
Sections of the larger
reserve area were levelled
and landscaped.
The association of the
area with tragedy was
further reinforced when a
relief worker named
McCullagh was killed in a
landslide during the
project in September 1936.
A section of the larger
site along Glen Dhu Road
then became a tip, until
the area was filled by the
late 1950s.
Trees have been planted
along the rim of the old
clay pit face, which follows
the contour of Norwich
Street towards the bottom
of the old burial ground, to
stabilise the ground.
In more recent years,
and much to the credit of
the council, a sign
indicating that it was the
site of a convict burial
ground has been erected at
the entrance to the lower
end of Norwich Road but it
is necessary to follow the
road along almost until the
convergence of Norwich,
Glen Dhu roads and Peel
Street to visit the site.
In 1997, researcher Ken
Bonney studiously
compiled a sample of all
convicts who perished in
Launceston between 1846
and 1874.
These were drawn from
the contemporary death
registers and it is likely
that the majority of those
identified by Bonney were
indeed interred in the
prisoners burial ground.
Ron Mallett is a PhD
candidate in history and
classics at the University of
Tasmania.
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Page A78
Landale
helped
the poor
HOMAS Landale
T opened one of the
first chemist shops in
Launceston and for nearly
30 years operated a
medical practice in the
town.
By the 1840s he was a
wealthy and respected
citizen, owning properties
in and around Launceston
including a section of
Invermay where Landale
Street honours his name.
Born in 1795 in Scotland
to a wealthy family,
Landale studied at the
Royal College of Surgeons
in Edinburgh and
attended medical schools
in London and Paris.
He applied for a position
as surgeon on a convict
ship and arrived in Sydney
in 1821 on the Midas with
800 in cash and 450 in
goods.
With land grants given
on the basis of capital
brought into the colonies,
Landale was offered a
grant of 800 acres near
Campbell Town in Van
Diemens Land which he
put in the care of an
overseer.
He went back to
England but returned to
Hobart at the end of 1823
where he practised for a
year in premises in
Murray Street.
In 1824 Dr Landale
moved to Launceston and
bought the property
Elphin Farm, on the banks
of the North Esk River,
from Richard Dry.
He later married Drys
eldest daughter Harriett
and opened his
apothecarys shop in
Charles Street, on the
western side between
Cameron and Cimitiere
streets.
Dr Landale played an
important role in the
development of many
Launceston organisations.
In their book History In
Our Streets, John and
David Morris note that Dr
Landale helped patients
unable to afford medical
attention with free advice
and medication.
They also report that he
was one of a group of
prominent citizens who
formed the Cornwall Turf
Club, which held its first
race meeting in what is
now Racecourse Crescent
on March 9, 1830.
After he died in
Launceston in 1851, at the
age of 56, one of his sons
took over the Dry property
Quamby.
Harriet Landale
subsequently married the
Reverend W. A. Brooke,
who became the third
headmaster of the
Launceston Church
Grammar School.
References: Dictionary of
Biography, P. H. Wessing;
History In Our Streets, J. and
D. Morris