By Parker McKenzie
Inside Ferntree Gully Cemetery, there are mysteries, cold cases and unexplored history waiting to be found.
“It isn’t just the famous people who make the history of an area,” Knox Historical Society’s Karin Orpin said.
“The everyday people make the area what it is today.”
It’s why the Knox Historical Society runs regular History and Mystery Cemetery tours, telling the stories and histories of the people who lay under the gravestones.
The Historical Society’s Trish Kirk — who runs the tours with Ms Orpin — said the events sell out quickly, with the tour on Friday 21 October selling out in just two days.
“We’ve been doing for it for quite a few years now and we get quite a large crowd,” she said.
“I have a very big interest in the people who are laid to rest there. I research them and Karen does the presentation.”
Future dates for the tours are first published on the Ferntree Gully History Mystery tours Facebook page.
Ms Oprin said the cemetery tour is about showcasing what an amazing asset to the community the cemetery is.
“The tour covers from 1873 right up to the expansion of the cemetery in the 2000s,” she said.
“Not only is there the grave of Arthur Streeton, but there are also so many interesting and tragic stories.”
Arthur Streeton was a famous Australian landscape painter, who later in life spent his time painting the Dandenong Ranges and lived in Olinda.
Ms Kirk said the events are mostly promoted by word of mouth, with more in November and February expected.
“Some people think it’s a ghost tour, but it’s not,” she said.
“It’s really about history and mystery, with a fairly heavy emphasis on history.”
Knox Historical Society was started in 1965 and is based out of Ambleside Park in Ferntree Gully. It compiles and maintains historical records of the Knox district, displays artifacts and photographs, publishes books and newsletters and much more.
For more information, you can visit home.vicnet.net.au/~khsinc
