Cemetery News

Hello everyone,

While we have been busy in the Friends group, not much has happened within the cemetery itself since our last Cemetery Guardian newsletter. There's been at least one new monument installed, the water taps have been fixed, 

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Watching the Wildlife

It is of course nesting season at the cemetery, but the magpies and butcher birds remain as friendly as ever with the volunteers. They weren't so friendly with this surprise visitor - a large goanna. No doubt knowing that the lizard loves eating eggs and baby birds, this magpie harrassed it for a long while, until the goanna eventually ended up at the top of a tall tree. We really don't see these reptiles very much and while it is great to see any wildlife in the cemetery, we do worry about the birds.

You can see a gallery of some of our cemetery animal friends here.



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Cemetery Tours

We led another four tours last month, including 'Deathly Tales', 'Women of South Brisbane Cemetery', 'Hangman's Walk', and 'Tragic Tales' over at Toowong Cemetery. We also led a day tour with university students studying Death and Dying. The wet weather continues to be problematic but we got by with any postponements.

It is hard work running these tours but they help fund our various cemetery activities, which do have a lot of overheads. You can see our full range of available night tours here.

University students tour

'Women of South Brisbane Cemetery' tour

'Deathly Tales' tour

'Hangman's Walk' tour

'Tragic Tales of Toowong Cemetery' tour

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Petition to Stop 'Ghost Hunting' in Cemeteries

A petition has been circulating recently to try and stop Ipswich City Council-approved commercial 'ghost hunts' in cemeteries. These are not 'ghost tours' with stories, but are instead events in which customers pay to use cheap gadgets to try and 'find' ghosts in the graves. This disrespectful activity is banned everywhere else in the world, but ICC will not explain who signed off on this or why they think it is acceptable.

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