Throughout its long history Melbourne General Cemetery has become the final resting place for some of Australia’s most notable identities. Personalities from all walks of life, including early pioneers and politicians through to famous sporting identities, rest within the cemetery’s grounds.

Grave – Sir Redmond Barry

Sir Redmond Barry
(Church of England, Compartment S, Grave 383)

Sir Redmond Barry was born in County Cork, Ireland, on the 7th June 1813, the son of Major-General Henry Barry and his wife, Phoebe. He was educated at a military school in Kent and Trinity College in Dublin.

Barry emigrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in 1839, where he remained for the rest of his life. A lawyer by profession, he became commissioner of the Court of Requests and upon the creation in 1851 of the colony of Victoria, was the first Solicitor-General. Barry was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in 1852 and also served as acting Chief Justice and Administrator of the government.

Barry, known for his service to the community, was instrumental in the foundation of the Royal Melbourne Hospital (1848), the University of Melbourne (1853), and the State Library of Victoria (1854).

Redmond Barry was the judge appointed for the Eureka Stockade trials in the Supreme Court in 1855, which saw all thirteen miners, as well as Peter Lalor, acquitted.

His most famous trial was arguably that of notorious bushranger, Ned Kelly, in 1880. The trial was a colourful affair, with Barry hailing from an Irish Protestant background and Kelly from an Irish Catholic background. The exchanges between the two have subsequently been the subject of many articles and books by lawyers and historians. Upon sentencing Kelly to death by hanging and quoting the customary “May God have mercy on your soul”, Kelly is reported to have had the last word by replying “I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there when I go”.

Sir Redmond Barry died on the 23rd November 1880, twelve days after Ned Kelly’s execution.

William John Turner Clarke

Grave – William John Turner ‘Big’ Clarke

William John Turner Clarke was born on the 20th April 1805 in Somerset, England, the second son of William and Sarah Clarke. After marrying Elizabeth Dowling in 1829, the couple sailed to Hobart Town, excited at the prospect of new opportunities.

Over the next five years he accumulated land and sheep, becoming more and more prosperous as time went on. In 1837 he shipped 1,612 ewes across Bass Strait, eventually acquiring pastoral licences for 30,000 acres near Ballarat. By 1942 he had 100,000 sheep in the Port Phillip District and each year he extended his landholdings. He introduced the Leicester breed of sheep into Australia and his prosperity increased with the gold rush of the 1850s. In time he acquired the reputation of being the wealthiest man in Australia. Known as ‘Big’ Clarke, he was widely feared for his ruthlessness in the pursuit of acquisition, but respected for his genius in the pursuit of fortune.

Clarke lived in Tasmania until 1850, visiting his stations on the mainland at shearing time. He represented Southern province in the Victorian Legislative Council from 1856 to 1870. Even with his declining health which left him partially paralysed, he still insisted on attending directors’ meetings for the many interests he was involved in. A big man, it took four men carrying him on a litter to get him to his carriage.

William John Turner Clarke died on the 13th January 1874 at his home, Roseneath, in Essendon, leaving behind a massive estate and legacy.

Grave – William John Turner ‘Big’ Clarke

John Pascoe Fawkner

Artist’s Impression of Funeral of John Pascoe Fawkner

Memorial for John Pascoe Fawkner

John Pascoe Fawkner
(Independent, Compartment A, Grave 162S)

John Pascoe Fawkner was born in Cripplegate, London on 20th October 1792, the son of John and Hannah Fawkner. At the age of 11 he was transported to Australia with his father, who had been sentenced to 14 years gaol for receiving stolen goods. Upon arrival in 1803 a new British colony was established in Bass Strait, landing at Sullivan Bay, near Sorrento. The colony struggled to survive and was eventually re-established in the new town of Hobart in Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania).

Once in Hobart, Fawkner assisted his father (who had obtained a conditional pardon) in his bakery, before moving to Launceston with his wife. They proceeded to build a life there, establishing a bakery, timber business, bookshop and a newspaper, The Launceston Advertiser, in 1829. He eventually obtained a licence to run the Cornwall Hotel.

In 1835 Fawkner purchased the schooner ‘Enterprize’ and financed a party of free settlers to sail to the mainland and look at establishing a settlement in the Port Phillip Bay region. The ‘Enterprize’ sailed up the Yarra River in August 1835 and founded the settlement which was to become known as Melbourne. The Fawkners arrived in the Port Phillip District in October 1835 and from that point, John Pascoe Fawkner made his mark on the new settlement. His achievements included opening the settlement’s first hotel on the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane, publishing the Melbourne Advertiser in January 1837 and acquiring a property in 1839 in the subdivision of Coburg. The property was called Pascoeville and is known today as Pascoe Vale.

Fawkner was elected to the first Legislative Council of the Port Phillip District in 1851 and in 1856 he was elected to the first Parliament of the self governing colony of Victoria as Member of the Legislative Council for Central Province.

John Pascoe Fawkner died on the 4th September 1869 at the age of 77. His funeral was a grand affair with over 200 carriages present and a reported 15,000 people lining the streets on the day of the funeral.

Grave – John Pascoe Fawkner

John Grey Gorton was born on the 9th September 1911 near Melbourne and was the son of John Rose Gorton and Alice Sinn.

During World War 2, he enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve and served in South Africa, the Middle East and Singapore. While in Singapore, he was badly injured when his aircraft hit an embankment and flipped over. The scars from the injuries he sustained remained with him for the rest of his life.

John Gorton entered politics in 1949 when he was elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party, serving in a number of positions throughout the Menzies and Holt governments. Upon Harold Holt’s disappearance in 1967, John McEwen was sworn in as the interim Prime Minister. A leadership battle followed with John Gorton being elected leader of the Liberal Party and being sworn in as the 19th Prime Minister of Australia of the 10th January 1968. He served in this capacity until 1972 when Labour won the federal election of that year.

John Grey Gorton died in Sydney on the 19th May 2002 at the age of 91.

Peter Fintan Lalor

Above & Below: Grave – Peter Fintan Lalor

Peter Fintan Lalor
(Roman Catholic, Grave 298)

Peter Fintan Lalor, was born in 1827 at Raheen, County Laois in Ireland, the son of Patrick and Anne Lalor. Educated at Carlton College, he then trained as a civil engineer at Trinity College in Dublin.

Immigrating to Australia in October 1852 with his brother Richard, he initially worked on the construction of the rail line which was being built between Melbourne and Geelong. Soon after he joined with those flocking to the Victorian gold fields and began mining in the Ovens Valley, moving on to Eureka Lead at Ballarat.

Moved to action by the incompetent and often brutal administration of the mines, he was elected to lead the men of the stockade. During the ensuing battle, he was wounded and ultimately had to have one of his arms amputated. A warrant was issued for his arrest but he was hidden by supporters until jurors found others who were tried on the same charges not guilty in 1855.

As a result of what has become known as the Eureka Stockade, legislation was passed giving miners the right to vote and generally improving the conditions of miners as a whole.

In 1855, Peter Lalor was appointed to the Victorian Legislative Assembly and in 1856 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly, holding the seat of South Grant which he was to maintain for the rest of his life. He served as Postmaster-General and the Minister for Trade and Customs, as well as the chairman of several committees. His most well known post was that of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria, a post he held from 1880 to 1887.

Peter Fintan Lalor died after a short illness on the 9th February 1889 aged 62 years. His is a lasting legacy in Melbourne, with both the northern Melbourne suburb of Lalor and the federal electorate division of Lalor being named after him.

Walter Albert Lindrum

Grave – Walter Lindrum

Walter Albert Lindrum
(Church of England, Compartment TT, Grave 1139)

Walter Lindrum was born in Kalgoorlie on the 29th August 1898, the son of Frederick Lindrum. His father and grandfather were both Australian Billiards Champions in their own right and Walter and his brother were tutored in the sport from an early age. When Walter lost the tip of his index finger from an accident in 1901, his father taught him to play left handed. He was 13 years old when he played his first professional game.

By 1921 Lindrum was defeating his older brother, who was then the Australian Champion. He refused to compete against his brother for the title of Champion of Australia.

Lindrum dominated the English billiards arena from 1929 to 1933, at times conceding up to 7,000 points start to his nearest rivals. The rules of the game were altered on several occasions to try to curb Lindrum’s style of play.

Lindrum wrote and re-wrote the record books and is often referred to as the greatest player the sport has seen. He has some 57 world records to his credit, many of which are still in existence.

Walter Albert Lindrum died at the age of 61 on the 30th July 1960 in Surfers Paradise, Queensland. He was often referred to as one of Australia’s all time great sporting identities along with names like Sir Donald Bradman and Sir Hubert Opperman. At the time of his death the newspapers called him “The Bradman of Billiards”.

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies

Memorial of Sir Robert Menzies

Memorial Plaque for Sir Robert and Dame Pattie Menzies

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies was born in December 1894 in Jeparit, Victoria, the son of James and Kate Menzies. Educated in a small one-roomed school, he then moved on to private schools in Ballarat and Melbourne before graduating in law at the University of Melbourne in 1918.

After establishing a successful career in law, Menzies gave up his law practice in 1928 to enter state parliament as a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, representing the Nationalist Party of Australia. In 1929, he moved to the Legislative Assembly, serving as a minister in the Victorian government from 1932 to 1934. He also became Deputy Premier of Victoria in 1932.

Menzies decided to enter federal politics in 1934 and was immediately appointed Attorney-General and Minister for Industry in the Joseph Lyons government. Upon the death of Joseph Lyons in 1939, Robert Menzies became leader of the United Australia Party, (which was to later become the Liberal Party), and Prime Minister of Australia until the party’s defeat at the federal election in 1941.

He served as leader of the opposition from 1943 to 1949. When the Liberal-Country Party coalition won the 1949 election, he again became Prime Minister. He served in this position until his retirement in 1966, making him the longest continuously serving Prime Minister in Australian history.

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies died at the age of 83 on the 15th May 1978 and is commemorated, along with his wife Dame Pattie Menzies, in the Prime Minister’s Garden at Melbourne General Cemetery.

James Henry Scullin was born on the 18th September 1876 in the town of Trawalla in western Victoria and was the son of John and Ann Scullin. A Labour politician representing the seat of Yarra, Scullin was sworn in as Australia’s ninth Prime Minister in 1929, becoming Australia’s first Roman Catholic Prime Minister. James Scullin remained as Prime Minister until 1932, when the Labour Party was defeated at the federal election held that year. He remained in Parliament until his resignation in 1949.

James Scullin died on the 28th January 1953 at the age
of 76.

Robert O’Hara Burke

William John Wills

Above and Below: Monument of Robert O’Hara Burke & William John Wills

Transporting the Monument to the Cemetery

Robert O’Hara Burke & William John Wills
(Church of England, Compartment V)

The ill-fated expedition of Burke and Wills is Australian folklore.

Robert O’Hara Burke was born in 1821 in County Galway, Ireland, the son of James and Anne Burke. After a distinguished career in both the military and police arenas, Burke emigrated to Australia in 1853. Upon his arrival, he joined the Victorian police force and was initially posted to Carlsruhe as an inspector. He was soon promoted to Senior Inspector and transferred to Beechworth. By 1858 he was serving as Police Superintendent in Castlemaine.

William John Wills was born in 1834 in Totnes, Devon, the second child of William and Sarah Wills. Migrating to Australia in 1852 with his younger brother, the brothers found work in Deniliquin as shepherds. Wills’ father arrived in Australia in 1853 and the family moved to Ballarat, where William worked as a buyer for a bank before moving to Melbourne to commence training at the Flagstaff Observatory.

In May 1860, Burke was appointed to lead the Victorian Exploring Expedition with Wills appointed as surveyor and astronomical observer. They departed on the 20th August 1860 with a total of 19 men, 27 camels and 23 horses. The party separated into two groups in December 1860, with Burke and Wills, along with Charley Gray and John King, heading towards the Gulf of Carpentaria. They reached the estuary of the Flinders River in February 1861, with floods and swamps turning them back.

Already weakened by starvation and exposure, progress was slow. One of the men died four days before they reached the agreed rendezvous point of Coopers Creek. Upon reaching Coopers Creek, they discovered that the rest of the party had given up and left, leaving behind a note and some food. The three men attempted to reach Mt Hopeless but failed and returned to Coopers Creek. While waiting for rescue, William Wills became too weak to continue, urging Burke and King to continue, leaving him alone with food, water and shelter. William John Wills died alone at Breerily Waterhole on Coopers Creek. Robert O’Hara Burke died soon after. The exact date of their deaths is unknown, but is generally accepted to be the 28th June 1861.

John King survived until he was rescued by Alfred Howitt, who buried Burke and Wills at Coopers Creek before returning to Melbourne. Howitt returned to Coopers Creek in 1862 and exhumed the bodies of Burke and Wills, transporting them to Adelaide where they were placed on a steamer for return to Melbourne. The bodies of Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills were laid in state for two weeks before a State Funeral was held on the 23rd January 1863.