I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this land and pay my respects to the Elders both past and present.
Resting in Chaotic Peace
“The dead are invisible but not absent.”
They’re here physically beneath your feet and some say they’re here spiritually haunting the platforms of Central Station…
Let me take you back through time to the very first few years of Sydney. It wasn’t the beautiful, iconic and historic city that we know and love today. It was dirty, dangerous, dingy and it smelled terribly. It was industrious and rough thanks to both its convict population and the very nature of the construction zone it was.
The newly settled convicts worked long and laboriously to build and grow the city. It wasn’t a clean society nor was it rich by any means and so, by extension, there was a lot of illness and disease that went untreated. Coupled with plagues of disease transferred by rats and sickness outbreaks amongst the population, many Sydneysiders were suffering and dying.
A cemetery was needed for the terminally ill and so Governor Phillip and the Reverend Richard Johnson chose a site on the outskirts of town in September 1792. The George Street Burial Ground was small and was considered to be in an area that wouldn’t affect the health of the living. It was never gazetted as a burial ground nor was it consecrated. No trustees were appointed and it’s management was ad hoc. Records weren’t kept about who was buried there and no plans were laid out for burial placement except for what was marked by headstones. The cemetery was in operation for 27 years by which time it was over full and unpleasant smells wafted menacingly from the ground. The future would see this site constructed with Town Hall but for now, it was time for a new cemetery.
“Government Orders, 22nd January 1820. His Excellency the Governor has lately caused a spacious burial ground to be prepared and enclosed with a wall, situated at a short distance beyond the Brickfields, which is henceforth only to be used as a place of interment, for the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Sydney.”
The Devonshire Street Cemetery, also known as the Brickfield Cemetery or Sandhills Cemetery was located on Brickfield Hill between Eddy Avenue and Elizabeth Street and between Chalmers and Devonshire Streets. It was consecrated by Governor Macquarie in 1820.
The Devonshire Street Cemetery started out as a 4 acre burial ground but quickly grew to span seven acres after only four years of operation.
“Government Orders, 29th January 1820. All vaults shall be of the same length and be placed uniformly in line with each other extending east and west, according to the order established in the mother country.”
Despite this order, it wasn’t managed the way it was intended and not even close to the modern sense of cemetery management seen today. It was divided into sections; seven distinct cemeteries for each of the religions of the current day and each section operated independently.
Sydney was growing at an unprecedented rate. The cemetery filled to capacity quickly but the dead kept coming.
“As Health Officer, I received a letter from a person lying near the Burial Grounds, who begged to point out to me:
‘...the filthy and overcrowded state, where some 20 to 30 bodies are interred weekly, many not exceeding two feet below the land, so near the surface that you just touch them with a walking stick or umbrella.’”
“It is now scarcely possible to dig a grave without disinterring the remains of dead bodies; and I have myself on several occasions seen the side of coffins projecting at various depths to the great distress of all right-minded persons.” - Reverend Walsh
The cemetery started to ooze and leak a foulness of rot causing contagious and even fatal pathogens that would be catastrophic to the city’s population. Despite it's dilapidated state, thieves and grave robbers continued to pilfer vaults looking for anything of value.
“City Council Chambers, 1860. Gentlemen, the history of medicine shows that overcrowded graveyards within towns and cities have given rise to the most fatal consequences. The gases which are evolved from the dead human body are capable of producing contagious and more pestilential diseases, even plague and cholera. I therefore now with due deference suggest that my report should be immediately brought under the notice of the government with a view of immediate closing of the burial ground in Devonshire Street.”
The Devonshire Street Cemetery ceased to operate as a cemetery in 1867 however a further 3000 bodies were buried in the years to come under government exemptions. Records weren’t accurately or consistently kept and so it is estimated that approximately 30000 people were buried here.
In the coming 20 years, Sydney continued to grow as did the need for transport. All train tracks laid stopped at Redfern. There was pressure to clean up waterways of Darling Harbour from the poisonous drainage leaching from the cemetery and the rank smell exuding from the ground.
In 1901, the Devonshire Street Cemetery was resumed for the building of the new railway.
“Speaker of the House: The motion is carried: Devonshire Street Cemetery will be resumed for a new railway station.”
“The whole block of land, of which the cemetery forms but a part, has to be cleared. And when it has been cleared, several of the most interesting features of ‘old Sydney’ will have disappeared, wreckage upon the waves of the great sea of Progress.
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Everyone ought to go and see this cemetery before it is too late - so do go, all of you, and show some reverence for the men who have helped to make up able to stand alone.” - Town and Country Journal 1901
Arthur and Josephine Foster from Surry Hills took photographs and recorded the tombstone inscriptions into a book. It is thanks to their diligent work spanning two years, that we are able to get an understanding of what the cemetery was actually like.
“A lady photographer, with her attendant genius holding the umbrella to shield her from the bright and ardent sun of an easy and cool summer’s day, was there.”
Approximately 8500 bodies were claimed by families and relatives of the buried. Men set to work to number the bones of the bodies with their matching tombstones but it was soon realised that this would be an impossible task. Bodies had been buried anywhere and everywhere. They were unable to tell which bones belonged to which graves but worst of all was the discovery of those buried alive.
“In most cases, the mortal remains consisted of little else than a few bones, a handful of dust , and what looked like burnt rags. In some cases, however, the remains were fairly well preserved, particularly so in the case of one Stephenson, who was buried right up the railings in Devonshire Street…” - Unknown reporter
The remains of the dead were exhumed and reinterred to various cemeteries across New South Wales including Gore Hill cemetery, St Thomas Cemetery in Crows Nest, Rookwood Cemetery, Waverley Cemetery, Balmain Cemetery, Camperdown General Cemetery, Randwick General Cemetery, Bunnerong Cemetery, Field of Mars Cemetery, South Head General Cemetery and Woronora Memorial Park. Remains were also relocated outside the metropolitan area, including Sandgate Cemetery in Newcastle and Berkeley Pioneer Cemetery in Unanderra.
“Government Official: On this day 4th of August, 1906, I hereby declare Central Station open!”
And Central Station was built, extended, renovated over the years to become the station we have today. Platforms 24, 25, 26 and 27 have been dubbed the Ghost Platforms. So named because the workers would often hear the voices of children believed to be those of the children who were buried exactly under those platforms and their respective tunnels.
Today you stand in Central Station but beneath your feet are those who were left behind who rest in eternal chaotic peace.
“...I am not dead but sleeping here.”
To log your find you must:
- Attach a photo of yourself or something personal with the clock located at the posted coordinates in the background displaying the time in your log.
- Send your answers to the CO stating the time and the following in relation to the time displayed on the clock in your photo:
- The time of the next train to Sutherland;
- The time of the next train to Penrith;
- The time of the next train to Hornsby;
- The time of the next train to Palm Beach.
- In your log, recount a strange experience you've had with any paranormal phenomon (if any).
References:
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.