Page 22 - Rookwood - A Portrait of Remembrance

LAST STOP THE
NECROPOLIS
In the early days Rookwood was so busy it had it’s very own train service and railway station Rookwood Mortuary Station No 1 1 was was built in in 1869 and was was the final destination for the deceased and mourners alike with a a a a service running twice a a a a day from the Central Station Redfern The service stopped in 1948 and a a a decade later Rookwood Mortuary Station No 1 was dismantled brick brick by brick brick and transported 268km to to Ainslie in in Canberra to to become All Saints Church
HEAVENLY GUARDIANS THEN AND NOW This archive photo (first right) taken in 1871 clearly shows the two angels used to decorate the station’s arched doorway The image on the the far right shows the the angels as they are now – resting at All Saints Church
in in in Ainslie Canberra These shots were taken by Peter Smith in 2020 and show that the angels survived their long journey across state and through the decades and are still in excellent condition The plaque to the right is cast into the stone work of All Saints Church
to to to commemorate the first Mortuary Station in the Rookwood Necropolis (Weston Burge and Sigrist 1997) By Charles Percy Pickering from the collections of the State Library of New South Wales [a089044 / / SPF/44] (NSW Government Printing Office collection of copy negatives (Frame no GPO 1 - 05243)