Toowong Cemetery - Part 3 - Interesting Finds

Yeah you better believe I'm milking this cemetery business for all it's worth lol.
Today's blog will be about some of the more 'interesting' finds of the day.  First up we have the gravestone of Edward McGregor - an amazing sculpture with a supposedly uncanny likeness to the deceased.  There is an urban legend surrounding this guy, that he supposedly changes the position of his head every now and then - some guy swears tooth and nail it winked at him, but I've yet to see him move!

Then I have a set of graves that totally made me think of chest pieces, framed by the freaky sky that afternoon.  NB: I did not do anything to enhance that photo, it just seriously looked SO weird that day!

And lastly, (and rather controversially) - this little beauty from the inside of the monument right at the front of the cemetery near Edward McGregor:

It reads: PUP - A faithful canine friend maliciously poisoned.

I am dying (no pun intended) to know what the hell happened here.  Why was the dog poisoned?  Who did it?  Was it even poisoned or was it the suspicious mind of its previous owner?  I guess I'll never know, but for now the drama of this little monument is enough to keep me sustained.

Toowong Cemetery Part 2 - Impressive Grave Sites

These are some of the bigger grave sites in Toowong Cemetery that caught my attention.  First up two shots of the monuments for Mayne.  I haven't read the Mayne Inheritance yet, but I did do a bit of snooping into who the Mayne family were and they were pretty big around Brisbane.  For one the university I go to (University of Queensland) I'm told the land was donated by the Mayne's.

And I live just across the road from where their main estate used to be - it is now part of the Wesley Hospital.  They of course also have a very interesting involvement with some murders in Brisbane, which I believe is what the bulk of the Mayne Inheritance is about.  And here's an urban legend for you - supposedly there have been a few incidents of a 'red liquid' seeping out from the grates below this monument.. ooooh creepy! ;)

Next up is Governor Samuel Blackall's monument.  It is by far the largest and most imposing monument in the cemetery - and to top it all off it sits on the highest point of the grounds, so I'm pretty sure you can see it from the highway but don't quote me on it.

Not sure if this is anyone important, but I was struck by how nice the sculptures were on this one.  Love how creepy the photo looks too!

Now Bonus photo - City views in the afterlife!

Toowong Cemetery Part 1 - Jack the Ripper?

So since the start of the year Justin and I have this new past-time hobby of going to the local cemetery, which for us is one of the biggest in Brisbane - the Toowong Cemetery.  We were sitting around doing nothing one Sunday in January and I had the idea of going to go check out the place, because I'd never walked through a cemetery and though it might be interesting.  Then I googled the history of the place and 'urban legends' - I am completely obsesses by UB's, I'll have to do a post about what I've found out over the years - anyway I discovered that a Jack the Ripper suspect is buried in TC.  It took us two days to find the grave because the first time I didn't bring a map but find him we did!

Anyway today we went with Justin's sister Sian and her beautiful little doggy Monty for a walk through TC.  We wanted to show her some of our finds in particular Mr J. Ripper and I took a few snaps of my favourite graves that I'll talk about spread over blog posts.

Our suspect Mr Walter Porriott was buried in 1952 in the same grave as his last wife Eliza (known as 'Bessie) - the surviving generation of Porriott's claim that he is not named on the grave because of a deeply shameful reason that no-one has discussed since that era.

The gravestone has been damaged but you can go to the Brisbane Times article to see it in it's former glory.  This is a shot of the gravestone listing of Eliza and Walter.

This is a shot of the grave from Sian's blog - because Justin pulled horrid faces in the shots I took!

This grave site can be found at "Portion 7A, Section 185, Grave Number 9/10".  The map for the west side of the cemetery can be found here and the east side can be found here if you'd like to have a look for some graves yourself :)