A Bush Funeral in New South Wales.

Scarce colonial engraving of a New South Wales bush funeral in 1885.

Contemporary account: A funeral in the bush is perhaps more impressive than in the city, where the noise of passing vehicles and the never-ceasing stream of pedestrian traffic harmonizes so poorly with the tears and saddened thoughts of the bereaved. As we gaze upon the coffin, covered with a black cloth and strewn with a few handfuls of bush flowers, conveyed on the rude dray drawn by a couple of bullocks, over the long, lonely country road, we cannot help thinking of similar scenes in the mountain regions of Europe and feeling how one touch of nature makes the whole world kin. There is no need to describe the picture; it tells its own story. How, in the midst of life, the hand of death makes itself felt, striking down the strong man in the moment of his pride, and bringing rest to those weary of their worldly pain and suffering. It is a picture full of poetry and pathos in its stern reality, a picture which, had poor Kendall still been with us, would have led him to produce one of those strangely pathetic ballads in which his soul found consolation.

From the original edition of the Illustrated Sydney News.  

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 440095
State Library New South Wales: F8/39-40
State Library Victoria: CINF SLVIC=1853-1872-RARENSL N.S.W.