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Don’t forget to check our website at www.hobartsynagogue.org
11
An old Jewish Burial Ground in Launceston
The following letter, dated 7th June 2007 and addressed to the late Peter Elias, was recently received by
our president. It may interest those of you who are fascinated by Tasmanian Jewish history.
Dear Mr Elias,
I was reading your book ‘A Few From Afar’ today, in searching for some information relating to Jewish
people in early VDL. As such, it provided me with the information I was after, but I thought I might pass
on something you may not have been aware of at the time of writing.
For some years I lived at 56 High St, Launceston. This is near the corner of Balfour St, on the western
side of High Street. The house was old, but very interesting as it incorporated a much older ‘house’ as
one of the rooms. It was weatherboard, and they had just built the new house around the old, one room
with fireplace, house or hut. Even the roof was left in place, with the new roof built out over the top. And
then in later years a whole new iron roof was built up over the shingles.
Anyway, in looking into this, we found the site marked on early maps of Launceston as ‘Jewish Burial
Ground’ and the hut left as a room seemed to correspond with the ‘keeper’s house’ as marked on one of
the maps.
We were renting, and the owners wanted to knock it down to build units on the site, so I was consulting
with the burial ground expert at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery who found some information
on it. This was some years ago now (and yes, they did get a bulldozer in on the weekend and flattened
the whole house after they got us out of there, and eventually paid a whopping fine and built the units.)
We had been trying to get a historic evaluation before it was knocked down, but you get that.
In early pictures of Launceston, the houses didn’t go up the hill as it was too steep. Right on top was this
little hut visible in the right spot, so it may be where the local Jewish people were buried in the years
before the Invermay burial ground became usable (it being swamp before it was drained, and not likely to
have been used then for burials.)
Certainly, if you wish to follow it up, the QVMAG have maps showing it as the burial ground – just ask for
the earliest ones they have and look at High St, or along the crest of the hill before it was really named.
Also, don’t forget that Launceston really wasn’t here till about 1822. Lots of it had to move to George
Town, and then back again, so burial sites were rather ad hoc till then or even later.
Weddings were also an optional extra for everyone, as there was actually no way of couples getting
married for most of the first 15 or so years except when Rev Knopwood made one of his 2 visits and did
some mass marrying. So Jewish or not, Launceston must have been a somewhat flexible society till Rev
Youl turned up in about 1819 I think it was and started out with some serious mass marrying to regularise
a lot of relationships.
Anyway, thank you again for the work you put into your book. It was very useful to me. I am putting
together an on-line learning unit for Adult Education and needed some references on matters of Jewish
convicts and it saved me a great deal of work.
Regards.
Jan Horton
Tasmania’s Jewish History in the Australian Geographic
An article about Tasmanian Jewish history features in the glossy ‘Australian Geographic’ July September
2007 magazine, titled ‘The Torah in Tasmania: Exploring the Apple Isle’s Jewish roots’, by Oryana
Kaufman.
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