Landscapes of the dead: history and memory in a distant field of murder
Version 2 2024-06-17, 20:56Version 2 2024-06-17, 20:56
Version 1 2016-10-25, 13:56Version 1 2016-10-25, 13:56
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-17, 20:56authored byBV Wilkie
Cemeteries are landscapes of the dead, places in which we hide our memories for the living to stumble across while they're stretching their legs in small country towns. Some time ago I stumbled across a remarkable memory at Camperdown, in Victoria's Western District. Or, rather, it loomed over me. Erected in the late 1880s, the seven-metre obelisk of grey granite marked the burial place of Wombeetch Puyuun, or Oombete Pooyan, known locally as Camperdown George, who has believed at the time to be the last surviving Djargurd wurrung person.