Alexander Vindex Vennard (1884-1947), collected yarns, ballads and anecdotes about bush life, which were published for about twenty-five years in a regular column 'On the Track' for the "North Queensland Register" and "Townsville Daily Bulletin". He adopted the pseudonym 'Bill Bowyang' after the straps buckled over trousers below the knees.
A Bush Funeral
By "Bill Bowyang."
Written in 1922.
A Bush Funeral
By "Bill Bowyang."
Written in 1922.
When I was in a Southern city some months back, I was invited to a social evening, and amongst those present was a lady who had just returned from visiting friends in a remote part of North Queensland. Describing her experiences to the gathering of city dwellers who never saw a dingo or cassowary outside of a zoo, she shocked them by describing at length a bush funeral she had witnessed, where a dray draped in black, had conveyed the coffin to its last resting place.
The writer thought it best to say nothing, but had he so minded he could have told of many bush funerals where the wooden casket had been carried on horse and camel back, and on sledge and wheelbarrow. As a matter of fact a dray is often used in bush hamlets where a hearse is not available, and I have noticed that the back-blocker, for all his crude methods, is more reverent in his attitude toward the deceased than the hurry-scurrying city resident.
In many country cemeteries there will be found flowers planted in the bottom half of kerosene tins. The flowers are grown at home, for the cemetery soil usually won't grow anything. When the blooms come the relations carry the tin to the grave, probably miles away. They don't last long, of course, but it is a much more touching tribute from the living to the dead than the purchase of wreaths from professional florists.
Much has been written of English country churchyards. A writer like Jerome K. Jerome, for example, would find a wealth of material for his pen in a visit to any bush cemetery.
The writer thought it best to say nothing, but had he so minded he could have told of many bush funerals where the wooden casket had been carried on horse and camel back, and on sledge and wheelbarrow. As a matter of fact a dray is often used in bush hamlets where a hearse is not available, and I have noticed that the back-blocker, for all his crude methods, is more reverent in his attitude toward the deceased than the hurry-scurrying city resident.
In many country cemeteries there will be found flowers planted in the bottom half of kerosene tins. The flowers are grown at home, for the cemetery soil usually won't grow anything. When the blooms come the relations carry the tin to the grave, probably miles away. They don't last long, of course, but it is a much more touching tribute from the living to the dead than the purchase of wreaths from professional florists.
Much has been written of English country churchyards. A writer like Jerome K. Jerome, for example, would find a wealth of material for his pen in a visit to any bush cemetery.
Sources:
- On the Track. (1922, February 2). Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 - 1954), p. 2.
- A bush funeral, ca. 1850s, Samuel Thomas Gill; Courtesy Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales
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