Cemetery Walking Tours and Queen Street Display

Check out what the library's planning for the Heritage Festival this year! We will celebrate Campbelltown’s extraordinary past with walking tours of two local cemeteries and revisit historic Queen Street through a photographic display at HJ Daley Library, as part of the 2016 National Trust Heritage Festival, from 16 April to 29 May. 

 

Take a guided walk through St David’s Presbyterian Cemetery on 4 May or the Methodist Congregational Cemetery on 12 May, and be amazed as I recount fascinating facts and quirky stories about Campbelltown’s most famous former citizens. Both tours run from 11am to noon and are free, but bookings are essential on 4645 4436. 

Or re-live the past and take a nostalgic ‘stroll’ down the Queen Street of days gone by, as HJ Daley Library presents the history of Campbelltown’s main street in a photographic display, highlighting businesses from the town’s past. ‘Rediscover Queen Street’ will be on display at HJ Daley Library from 26 April to 26 May.

Lesson Not Learnt

Thomas Rudd came from Bermondsey in London, England where he worked as a dustman. He was transported to Australia twice! The first time for stealing a pair of women’s shoes for which he spent two years in the hulks at Portsmouth and then was sent to New South Wales for five years. He was transported again in 1801 on the Earl Cornwallis for stealing a bag of sugar.

He married fellow convict Mary Kable in 1806. Thomas was granted 50 acres of land at Campbelltown on the 20th of June, 1816. 

Rudd died on December 15, 1830 and is buried in St Peter’s. His headstone reads that ‘He laft a wife and nine children to lament his loss’. Rudd Road in Leumeah is named after him.

One of his descendants is former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Mr Rudd has visited the grave of his ancestor in St Peter's and has a keen interest in his ancestry. He was highly amused that his ancestor was transported out here twice.

Thomas Rudd was featured in the library's tour of St Peter's Cemetery last Wednesday for the 2014 National Trust Heritage Festival. The next tour will be next Thursday May 8 at St John's Catholic Cemetery at Campbelltown. Contact the library for bookings and more information.

Details of the inscription on Thomas Rudd's headstone in St Peters Cemetery (Verlie Fowler Collection).

Written by Andrew Allen

 

National Trust Heritage Festival 2014

Step back in time and trace the journey of our early settlers by participating in a tour of our local cemeteries, to be hosted by Campbelltown City Council’s Library Service in celebration of this year’s National Trust Heritage Festival.   

The festival will run from 12 April to 26 May and celebrates the theme, ‘Journeys’.   

Embracing this year’s festival theme, Campbelltown City Library will host a walking tour of  St Peter’s Anglican Cemetery on Wednesday 30 April, and of St John’s Catholic Cemetery on Thursday 8 May. Both tours will be held from 11am to midday and will focus on convicts interred in the cemeteries and their ‘journey’ from their homeland to Campbelltown. Cost is free, but bookings are essential. Participants will meet at the front gate of each cemetery at 11am. 

Accompanying the tours will be a display at HJ Daley Library featuring the lives of the convicts discussed in the tours. The display will also feature Campbelltown library staff that settled in Australia from overseas, highlighting their journey as refugees or migrants. 

For more information, or to book for the tours, phone 4645 4436 or visit campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/whatson 

Visit nationaltrust.org.au for more National Trust Festival events.  

 

 

The graves of convicts James and Elizabeth Ruse in St John's Catholic Cemetery. Both will be featured in the library's cemetery tours.