The Toowong Cemetery

It seems incredible that today was my first visit to Toowong Cemetery.  Getting there, I went right past where I lived in high school.  This weekend I thought I should do my 'new place in Brisbane' thing, but yesterday I had no clue as to where to go.  Last night I went to Google maps, and after checking out Brisbane, California (in the San Francisco area), I went to Brisbane, Queensland.  Zoom and pan.  Toowong Cemetery caught my eye, and after considering a few other options, decided this was it.  February: done.

Today was a little rainy, and I nearly called it off.  About 1:30 the rain cleared though, so I packed my umbrella and set off.  This was such a good thing for me to do today.  I've been longing for solitude, and I found such peace in this place.  Traffic was still evident but distant, and apart from the birds it was quiet.  I came across 3 people and 3 dogs.

I had no real concept of how large this cemetery is.  Today I saw maybe a tiny bit of half of it.  I started off taking Boundary Rd - amazing vista, really high up, great views of the threatening rain clouds... And nowhere to take shelter when it started bucketing.  Little Jane Austen moment as I discovered my umbrella is terrible, cemeteries look great in the rain, and there are small brick shelters planted here and there.  Phew.

Once the rain had stopped, I took a slightly slower meander along another path, and was drawn to this bright white monument.  And I got rather excited when I realised it was in memory of the Mayne family, of the University of Queensland and The Mayne Inheritance fame.  And then the peace of the place took over, and I noticed I really like the iron railings.

Really, how peaceful is this?    Nothing but me and the birds.

If I hadn't taken this photo, I would have forgotten about it.  But looking like it was meant to be there, lined up with graves from more than 50 years ago, was a microwave.

And there were beautiful flowers.

Now that I know how easy it is to get there, and how peaceful it is, I know I'll be going back.  I also know that I have a relative buried there, so I'd like to find her name and then her burial plot.