Blink and you miss it: Final resting place of many Canberra pioneers

Hidden behind towering cypress pines on the western verge of William Hovell Drive near its intersection with Drake Brockman Drive, the old Weetangera Cemetery is easily missed by passing motorists.

One man all too aware of the final known resting place for 43 of our city's pioneers, almost half of whom hail from that most Canberra of families - the Southwells - is Joey Leonard, of Macgregor.

Four years ago, while driving past the cemetery after work, Joey glimpsed a very large brown snake slithering out of long grass from the historic graves and towards road.

The chance snake sighting triggered a childhood memory for Joey.

No, not relating to an unwelcome reptilian encounter, rather recollections of a "gentle old man" who lived next to him in Hackett.

His name was Oswald "Ozzie" Southwell.

"Ozzie was always kind to me. He lived on his own, and my young heart felt sorry for him. Something I've never forgotten about getting old," Joey recalls.

"Through knowing Oswald, I gained respect for the Southwell family as Canberra region pioneers and over time discovered many were buried in that cemetery."

This sudden flashback caused Joey to slam the brakes on.

"I thought it was an historic Canberra site that needed caring for ... in respect of the Southwells who I've respected my life," he explains.

"I was coming back from a garden maintenance job so had all my gear with me so did a U-turn and started mowing that very day!" he further explains. Heck, talk about spontaneous.

"I just wanted the cemetery to be safe for any visitors without the worry of being bitten by a snake," explains Joey, who has since mowed the grass "about half a dozen times a year".

Handy on the tools, he's also hand-crafted a sign so anyone who stumbles upon the bush cemetery - which is on land leased by the Uniting Church and isn't on the radar of the ACT government mowing team - "know where they are".

"I worked for 12 years as a greenkeeper at Federal Golf Course so love mowing," reveals Joey who now works in property maintenance at Every Man Australia, a community organisation that helps men with a range of issues.

While tending to the out-of-the-way cemetery, Joey has developed a thirst for even more knowledge about the lives of those interred there.

In fact, while recently driving past I noticed Joey's ute and trailer parked amongst the headstones and went for a sticky beak.

Joey and his brother Gerard were tending to some flowers they'd planted while waiting for the arrival of Ralph Southwell and Wesley "Wes" Kilby, both of whom have ancestors buried in the cemetery.

"People like Ralph and Wes, who was mowing the cemetery well into his late eighties, have so many stories to tell us about their families and the Canberra region since the mid-1800s," he said.

Ralph, the great great great grandson of Thomas Southwell around whose tomb most of the graves are placed, tips his hat to Joey for his community effort.

"First of all, that he discovered the cemetery at all, as many people drive past unaware that it's there, and secondly that he is moved to and has the abilities and equipment to maintain it," asserts Ralph.

Wes, now 90, and whose great great grandfather William Kilby is buried in the first row of the cemetery, exclaims, "It's absolutely marvellous what Joey is doing, he's doing it with great gusto."

Ralph explains, "Joey isn't the first volunteer to generously maintain the cemetery to such high standards, nor hopefully will he be the last. According to government records, "an officer of the Department of the Interior who inspected the cemetery which is looked after by a small group of dedicated volunteers, in 1955 said it was the best kept cemetery in the ACT."

According to Ralph, Joey is so much more than a volunteer. "Caring for the cemetery seems to now be part of his psyche - it's almost spiritual," explains Ralph, adding, "Joey and his brother epitomise the older community minded generation in Canberra that seems to be disappearing very fast."

Hear! Hear! I'll second that.

As to the snakes, thankfully on my fleeting visit I don't see any - no doubt they're all scared away by Joey's mower and whipper snipper.

This is a good thing, not least for the snakes, for according an historical note written by Thomas Southwell's late great-grand-daughter Beryl Southwell (1904-1988) "occasionally a snake was killed in the bush surrounding the church [demolished in 1955], and the killing was always an event of great excitement."

Flute found: In a 2021 column about the former wooden church that stood at old Weetangera Cemetery, I asked if anyone knew the whereabouts of a tin whistle (a type of fipple flute) that Robert Kilby would often play during church singalongs. Several readers, including John King, of Queanbeyan, report it is safely squirreled away in a cabinet at St John's schoolhouse in Reid.

Next to it is a bible printed in 1866 that was used continuously at services at the church from 1873 until 1952. It is still in a wonderful state of preservation, without a single torn leaf. Worth the trip just to see.

Weetangera Cemetery: The cemetery is best accessed walking through the William Hovell Drive underpass located near the end of the pedestrian laneway at the northern end of Mainoru Place in Hawker. Turn left after exiting the underpass.

Some 43 burials are recorded, and Southwell family members make up 21 of them. If you intend on visiting, do so soon, for I'm reliably informed by a government spokesperson that access to the cemetery "will likely be disrupted during the upcoming duplication of William Hovell Drive".

MORE YOWIE MAN:

One of the hardest things about writing this column is that hardly a week goes by that this column doesn't receive news that a regular contributor has moved onto the big yowie paddock in the sky.

One recently departed regular correspondent was Ian Loiterton, of Dunlop. Ian came to Canberra from Cootamundra in 1963 to study science, with a major in geology at the ANU. Like many before him and no doubt many after him, Ian loved Canberra so much he never left. Sporting a passion for "the bush capital", Ian loved showing me around his favourite "hidden" spots including the Aranda bushland.

Ian died suddenly in December 2019, aged 73, but his memory lives on with a new walk in the bush near Aranda just named in his honour.

The "Ian Loiterton South Aranda Woodland Walk" is a 2km stroll through a surprising variety of landscapes including a grassy glen, a swamp, native grassland, and tunnel of tea trees.

Jenny Andrews of the Friends of Aranda Bushland explains, "it's a walk we'd been working on for some years, but it took a while to come to fruition", adding "Ian who was a much-loved former member was working hard on the development of the walk when we suddenly lost him."

Earlier this month the walk was officially opened with many of Ian's family travelling from far afield to be at the ribbon cutting.

Ian's widow Sharon explained, "To have the walk that Ian was so involved in named after him is a blessing for his family and his friends. Ian would have been humbled by this honour."

The walk is a loop that begins at a stile on the western side of Caswell Drive near Glenloch Interchange. A photo of Ian standing proudly atop a nearby larger stile that featured in this column's series of "Stairs to Nowhere" in 2018 adorns the information panel at the trail head.

Rating: Hard.

Clue: The water is less than 15km away.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au. The first correct email sent after 10am, Saturday, November 25 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.

Last week: Congratulations to Leigh Palmer of Isaacs who was the first of many readers to correctly identify last week's photo, above, as an aerial view looking south from the completed (but since demolished) Sirius Building and across to the Alexander and Albemarle Buildings under construction in Woden, in 1968. The photo bought back memories for many readers who worked in the buildings for a range of government departments.

Leigh, who confesses to working for the Department of Works, which was housed in the Sirius Building in 1971, just beat John Burge of Curtin, Daniel Morrison of Downer, and Bob Hibberd to the prize.

Several readers, including Jasmine Maxwell of Phillip, also pointed out that "many of the early government buildings in the Woden Town Centre were named after ships from the First Fleet which arrived at Botany Bay in 1788, most notably Scarborough House, Alexander Building, Sirius Building, Penrhyn House, Borrowdale House and Fishburn House." For the record, Albemarle was among the fleet of 11 convict ships that formed the Third Fleet, which arrived in Australia in 1791.

Scorpions aren't the only critters to look out for in the Canberra Nature Park when the sun goes down. Earlier this week, while on a night stroll with a mate along a fire trail in Aranda, James Savill stumbled upon several reptile eggs "at the entrance to a shallow nest, being eaten by ants".

"We rushed off in case a snake was further down the hole," James reports.

While he can't be certain without a closer inspection of the eggs or more detailed photos, Gavin Smith of ACT Snake Removals believes "the burrow was likely made by a female Eastern Bearded Dragon (Pogona barbata)", which digs a shallow burrow, backs into it, and lays her eggs, and then covers them loosely with dirt. She may defend her nest site for a few hours after laying, but usually abandons it soon after.

Similarly, as James subsequently discovered through online research, "if they were snake eggs, we weren't at risk as they don't stick around their laid eggs either."

CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601