To find the cache you do not have to look on the monument. It is nearby.
Take a few minutes to view the monument and the accompanying information. This important historical monument is located in a quiet part of the cemetery and is easy to miss.
Bring your own pen.
The Quong Sing Tong Monument commemorates Chinese buried in the cemetery. The Quong Sin Tong monument dates from 1877 and is significant for historical and aesthetic reasons. It was erected in the first decade of Rookwood cemetery's operation and is one of its earliest monuments. It is located in a central and dominant position in the old Chinese section of the cemetery. It is a domed pavilion surrounded by a moat and designed in a classical European style
Quong Sin Tong was one of the earliest Chinese societies in New South Wales. It was a local Chinese district society whose task was to help with the exhumation of Chinese graves from Rookwood cemetery for reburial in China. The process was, at the time, in accordance with the beliefs and practices of the community and was fairly common until the 1950s.
The practice of returning the bones of the dead to rest in the soil of their ancestors was fundamental in Chinese culture and played an important role in the bond with the village. The usual practice was to bury a body for several years then to collect the bones of a number people at once to be ‘returned to China’.
District societies played the dominant role in the return of bones. The return of bones to the actual villages was probably done through the Tung Wah Hospital based in Hong Kong, a role this institution played for Chinese people in many countries It is not known when the first societies were established in New South Wales but the Quang Sing Tong, which was in existence by 1877, was reported to be the oldest. By the 1890s there were at least 10 such societies in Sydney with memberships that reached throughout New South Wales.
Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney reported that 75% of burials in the ‘Old Chinese Section’ of Rookwood Cemetery were, ‘returned to China’ – 1500 exhumations from 1875 to 1939. After entire working life spend in New South Wales, returning the bones of the dead to rest in the soil of their ancestors was fundamental in Chinese culture and played an important role in the bond with the village. The last recorded exhumation from this section of the cemetery was in 1962.
Information Sources:
http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/culture/community/display/21841-quong-sing-tong
http://arc.parracity.nsw.gov.au/blog/2017/01/27/chinese-settlement-in-new-south-wales/