Chudleigh's sacred grounds

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SEPTEMBER 2016 | Chere Kenyon

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CHUDLEIGH IS only a small village in the Meander Valley in comparison with others, but it has a rich history and the distinction of having not one or two, but three graveyards.

The first churchyard, located on a hill south of Chudleigh, was the original Church of Scotland grounds.

It is privately owned by John Hawkins, owner of ‘Bentley’ homestead.

It had been completely overgrown and covered in gorse, but John has now cleared it and his wife has planted an arboretum of native Tasmanian trees below the burial grounds.

They have now re-opened the graveyard to Chudleigh residents.

John continues to maintain the graveyard at his own expense and it’s quite a task for an individual to keep a cemetery looking beautiful.

The earliest grave appears to be a man called Wiggin (Wiggin Hill is located above Wesley Dale) who was born before 1788 and died around 1860.

The ‘bottom’ graveyard (heading towards Mole Creek) has always been a sacred place.

John said, “The churchyard at the bottom was a sacred place for Aboriginals and it covered the crossing point of what later became the Lobster Rivulet and is on slightly elevated ground.”

“From there the Aboriginals could survey their fire farm landscape up the valley.” It was called the Aboriginal Native Hut Corner camping grounds and the Pallittorre controlled access to the Ochre mines of Alum Cliffs from this location.

The Europeans later introduced sheep, and as they were an easier source of food for Aboriginals, the situation became ripe for trouble and eventually the Pallittorre were massacred.

John Hawkins went on to add, “We took over their sacred place, as and when they were basically removed from our environment, and turned it into our sacred place, the Church of England graveyard.

So, in a way, it is a particularly historic place for two communities; the Aboriginal community and the white settlement community of 1826.”

“This is where the Aboriginals had their camp, under this magnificent banksia which is the largest and most important banksia probably anywhere in this world. It is possibly a thousand years old.” Unfortunately you can’t accurately date a banksia tree because it doesn’t have rings.

The third graveyard consists of Catholic graves which are located beyond the Church of England graveyard boundary.

You can read more on the area by Googling ‘The history of Chudleigh Valley John Hawkins’ and downloading the Blue Gum Newsletter.

[udesign_icon_font name="fa fa-camera" color="#000000"] Mike Moores