Predecessor to Lang Park, 1870

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Milton looking across the former Paddington Cemetery, c. 1870

The Brisbane Courier - Tues 9 March 1909

"Sir - I desire to draw the attention of the religious public to the disgraceful state of a section of the old cemetery, situated at Caxton Street, Petrie Terrace. As I passed by last Saturday aftertoon I noticed that the fence appeared to be broken down in several places and that whole panels of split palings had been carried away. Some of the tomb stones looked as if they had been rolled into the street, while kids and goats gambolled over the last resting places of the dead. Two or three boys, armed with tomahawks or hammers, were busily engaged in knocking off some of the remaining palings from the inside, and carrying them away. A few hundred years off a squad of police were enjoying a tug of war or some other game. How is it, may I ask, that in open daylight, and under the very eyes of the authorities, the fence which surrounds a semi-sacred enclosure is carried away bit by bit, and used as common firewood? Are not the police paid to protect the property as well as the lives of the public?

I believe the erection of the burial ground to which I refer belongs to an honoured and respected denomination which I hesitate to name. I suppose that when the last piece of fencing has been carried off and consumed sacrilegious hands will be laid on the enclosures of other denominations.

Surely it is high time that the public, parsons, and police woke up to their duty!"


Then and now...

Milton looking across the former Paddington Cemetery, c 1870

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