A
Public Memory Project
by
Chris Lee

About

History

Places
Essex Evans Memorial
Essex Evans Grave
Groom Memorial
Mothers Memorial
Rudd Memorial
Rudd Selection
Toowoomba Ladies Literary Society Display

Writers

Places of Literary Significance

Your subtle veins of soft creeks lisp and beat Under the exile’s dream, and your ripe wheat, As golden as a fable, quivers in blades Of light in the white appraisal of the clouds. ‘For the Darling Downs,’ David Rowbotham

George Essex Evans Grave At rest sweet singer of sweet songs; Lie still and sleep, thy journey done, Life's hills are climbed. The view beyond Inspires thee now to flights unknown… With ideals higher than his peers He tried to lead us with his pen- To educate and to inspire Us all to see, as poets see … [i]

Essex Evans' grave in the Toowoomba cemetery displays the same monumental codes as the Webb Park monument. When vandals smashed a wayward path through cemetery in 1995 the Brisbane Courier Mail made a point of identifying this grave as one of those damaged.

Lack of respect for this poet and his final resting place was seen to highlight the lack of civic spirit associated with the act. One witness suggested that 'the people who did this are not the sort of people who should be living in Toowoomba'. [ii]

Further Reading

[i] James Love, 'George Essex Evans,' Collected Verse, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1928, p. [xiv]

[ii] 'Costs of Vandalism,' Toowoomba Chronicle, 18 February 1995, p.2.

Submissions and suggestions for places not yet included can be sent to leec@usq.edu.au