Something rather strange happens in the South Brisbane Cemetery several times each year. Volunteers arrive from all directions, some from just up the road and others from as far as Logan, the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, Woodford, Beenleigh and Ipswich. They happily wash the grime off headstones, clear away leaves and soil from the surfaces of concrete-topped graves, rake and sweep pathways, pick up litter, remove weeds, and fill skips with tree debris.[i] This is the Friends of South Brisbane Cemetery’s ‘Guardian Angels’ community cleaning bee. These have been happening for five years and in September 2023 we will hold our 50th such event.
See a Guardian Angels gallery here.
There is a strong 21st-century tradition of community care of the cemetery. The three women of the original FOSBC did a hell of a lot of work here after 2005, and there have been Clean Up Australia Days since 2009, and also two big post-flood clean-ups in 2011.
The Guardian Angels programme commenced in 2018, shortly after the incorporation of the FOSBC. We did a ‘Clean Up Australia Day’ in the cemetery in March of that year and I thought, ‘why not do this more regularly than just once a year?’ It gets new people involved, keeps existing volunteers engaged, and does a lot of good for the place itself. So the notion of a monthly cleaning bee – branded as the ‘Guardian Angels’ after the statuary of the cemetery – was born. In terms of attracting new members, it has been crucial to the success of the FOSBC.
Reaching 50 cleaning bees is quite an achievement for what is, after all, unpaid physical labour. There are, however, several positive qualities that have made it work. The setting of the 153-year-old historical cemetery is beautiful and serene, surrounded as we are by heritage and nature. Attendance is low-pressure (come when you want, leave when you want), the mood is always light and friendly, and friendships among the volunteers have developed over time. Another secret ingredient is the pleasure gained from the work. The reaction I hear most frequently from volunteers is the real sense of satisfaction as they see grime fall away when the stone is rinsed with water after a careful scrubbing, or once-obscured inscriptions coming to light, or when a headstone hidden for years by layers of leaves and soil is unearthed. The enthusiastic taking of before-and-after photos show a job well done. Some people also like to research the story of the resident of the grave, thereby forming a little bond with them.
My reputation as a spreadsheet obsessive is occasionally useful, and I have recorded attendance for every Guardian Angels day. The earliest records are a bit vague as to some names, but I do know that the events have attracted over 1,350 attendees over the last five years, with quite a few volunteers coming over 20 or 30 times each. All in all, there would have been around 500 individual people coming along at least once.
Different people have their own cleaning preferences. Some (like me) tend to focus on cleaning the stones, while others like to do a more thorough job and also clean the graves surrounds, and maybe the adjacent pathway.[ii] Some volunteers will just concentrate on the paths. We have people who like to drive around and collect tree debris for the skip. Others like to do a spot of weeding or gardening, litter collection, or (safely) relocating fallen stones to a better position. Some like to post their results to social media. Then there is the job of setting up the kitchen area with drinks and nibbles. We can also, with a written request from the relevant grave owners, repaint the lettering on granite headstones to a professional standard. The combined results of all this work can be inspiring.
It is always a nice moment whenever a cemetery visitor lets us know how much better the place is looking now, and there have been numerous other highlights over the years:
- We got the place looking spick and span for the 150th anniversary commemorations (thanks also to the Brisbane City Council),
- Seeing young people, including school groups, enjoying the work and developing an interest in the cemetery,
- Seeing regular attendees develop friendships,
- Returning to work – with social distancing – after the Covid lockdowns,
- Having regulars help with our comprehensive ‘State of the Cemetery’ Report earlier this year,
- Having about 180 members of the Centenary Stake Youth, Church of Latter-Day Saints, turn up for what must be the biggest cemetery cleaning bee in Australian history (including the 20 other volunteers supervising that day), photo of this
- Our successful lobbying for new benches and gardens in the cemetery,
- A story about the Guardian Angels on the ABC news,
- The involvement of the wonderful and very active people from the Brisbane geocaching community this year,
- Sometimes, at the end of a long day when everything has been packed away, revisiting the section that has just been cleaned and just taking in how much better it looks thanks to the work of the volunteers.
There are, of course, costs associated with all this work, including equipment for cleaning, storage and catering, and sometimes advertising. Most of this is funded by our guided tours, volunteer donations of equipment, and the occasional grant. So if you have any old wheelbarrows, rakes, heavy shelving, bookcases, etc., we might be able to find a useful place for them at the cemetery. We should also thank the BCC for allowing us access to the shed and facilities in the cemetery, which makes it so much easier to run these events.
In writing this, I’d like to thank each and every person who has been a Guardian Angel over the years. It has been a lot of work and there is still much to be done in the parts of the cemetery we haven’t reached yet, but together we have made some good memories and a big, big difference.
(The 50th Guardian Angels takes place on Saturday 2 September, and all are welcome. The Facebook event page can be seen here.)
[i] The Brisbane City Council are responsible for infrastructure maintenance, and outsource tasks such as grass and weed management, but do not attend to paths or individual grave maintenance.
[ii] It should be noted that we do not aim to restore graves to their original shining splendour. We just wash away what surface grime we can but the stones still retain their ‘aged’ and historical appearance, as befits a cemetery of this age.
Christopher Dawson 