Tuesday 26 January 2021

Australia Day 2021 With Some Liverpool Australia History

I'll start with a typical Australian, my lovely koala now being used as a planter box. Also typical is the weather today, sunny with a top temp. of 41 deg C. I am staying inside with the air con. on, hiding from the heat and being forced for the first time to wear a mask at the shops. In my much younger days I would have been burning up at the beach.
I'm celebrating Australia Day with a bit of local history. St Luke's church Liverpool celebrated its 100th birthday with this photo taken in 1919.
100 years later in 2019 the same photo (well not quite) was taken. I am in this photo, you will find me near the front on the right if you look hard enough. I was lucky as people kept pushing me toward the front saying you are only small. In the first photo everyone was wearing a hat, no hats in the second pic. The dignitaries such as the Archbishop and the Mayor had seats in the pic and the children were seated on the ground in front.
For such a small church it is very beautiful inside.
Another great book written about early Liverpool and it's first cemetery. Gail Newman's research is amazing. The crimes of convicts and the ships they arrived on also cause of death makes interesting reading. This cemetery is now a park the headstones moved, some lost but the bodies are still there.
This is the "newer" cemetery after Apex was closed and is now known as the Pioneer Cemetery and was closed for burial many years ago. The church and cemetery are now separated by a very large Westfield shopping centre. This is the view from my balcony looking over at the grave of my convict 6 times grt grandmother and 2 of her grandsons.
The old station buildings parts of which can still be seen.

 Spanish flu in Liverpool 1918-1919, now we have Covid so not a lot has changed.

Thanks to Dr Brian Cowling and Gail Newman for the use of their books (without permission) Liverpool has such an interesting history as it was a very early settlement in Australia.

Liverpool was founded in 1810 by Lachlan Macquarie who named it in honour of the Earl of Liverpool then Secretary of State for the colonies.