42-626: The Sydney Sportsman was a horse racing and sporting newspaper published in Sydney, Australia from 1900 to 1960. It continues to be published as The Sportsman . The Sydney Sportsman was first published on 3 October 1900 by John Norton . Norton was a controversial publisher who also published the Truth newspaper. He called on the writers of the Sydney Sportsman to "give it" to whoever deserved it, regardless of libel laws. The Australian poet Banjo Paterson
84-460: A railway line having been completed to Parramatta in 1856, it was decided to locate the new cemetery at a point on the line. Several sites were surveyed and found to be inappropriate. However, in 1862 the Cowper government purchased 80 hectares of land at Haslem's Creek from the estate of Edward Cohen. Cohen's land had previously formed part of a larger parcel known as "Hyde Park" that had been given to
126-531: A huge mansion called St. Helena, situated at Torrington Road, Maroubra in Sydney's eastern suburbs. In 1906, Norton was accused in the press of attempted murder. He became embroiled in a murder investigation regarding the death of one George Grohn (de Groen), who died in mysterious circumstances in John Norton's house on 9 November 1902. The men were both drunk on the night Grohn died, and Norton gave evidence that Grohn died because he had accidentally fallen down
168-448: A mansion, St Helena, overlooking Maroubra Beach . Their marriage was not a happy one. John and Ada Norton were judicially separated on 9 November 1915 on the grounds of Norton's drunkenness, cruelty and adultery. John Norton represented himself during the proceedings while Richard Windeyer KC acted on behalf of Mrs Norton. Details of the divorce trial appeared in the national press, including Norton's own newspaper Truth . John Norton
210-478: A non-denominational area of 23 hectares was also established. Other denominations allocated land in the original 200 acres (80 hectares) were Jews, Independents (Congregationalists), Presbyterians and Wesleyans. The Necropolis Act of 1867 came into force on 1 January 1868 formally dedicating the cemetery and establishing cemetery trusts. The first burial in the cemetery, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald,
252-664: A third of his inheritance, allowing Ezra Norton to gain control of the Truth media group. By 1927, John Norton's estate had been re-valued at £600,000 (equivalent to $ 54,580,000 in 2022). Later, his daughter Joan Norton, as Mrs Ben Shashoua, was the petitioner behind the bankruptcy of Sydney businessman Hugh D. McIntosh . She married Ben Shashoua in London on 9 January 1930, although they separated after 6 months and she returned to Sydney. Joan Shashoua (née Norton) died in Sydney on 7 March 1940, like her father, from effects of alcoholism, and
294-721: Is a heritage-listed cemetery in Rookwood , Sydney, Australia. It is the largest necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere and is the world's largest remaining operating cemetery from the Victorian era . It is close to Lidcombe railway station about 17 kilometres (11 mi) west of the Sydney central business district . It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. Rookwood Cemetery
336-455: Is a voluntary organisation dedicated to preserving the site. As the largest Victorian era cemetery still in operation in the world, Rookwood is of significant national and historical importance. Some older sections of Rookwood are overgrown with a riot of plants, early horticultural plants, some now large trees or groves, as well as an interesting array of remnant indigenous flora. This results in quite an eclectic mix of flora to be found within
378-501: Is divided into denominational and operational areas with individual offices, staff, and equipment to run different parts of the entire area. The cemetery is now managed by three trusts. Rookwood Necropolis Land Manager are the custodians of Rookwood on behalf of the NSW Government . The two denominational trusts are responsible for the care and maintenance of a number of burial sections catering to various ethnic and cultural groups within
420-661: The Evening News , which supported free trade . In 1885 he edited the official report of the Third Intercolonial Trades Union Congress . One of its resolutions condemned the New South Wales Governments contribution of £ 250,000 to assist migration from Europe. Norton was selected by the Trades and Labor Council of New South Wales to go to Europe in 1886 to tell potential immigrants that Australia
462-822: The Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program project of the National Library of Australia . John Norton (journalist) John Norton (25 January 1857 – 9 April 1916) was an English -born Australian journalist, editor and member of the New South Wales Parliament . He was a writer and newspaper proprietor best known for his Sydney newspaper Truth . Norton was arguably one of Australia's most controversial public figures ever. John Norton claimed to have been born in Brighton , Sussex , England, but may have been born in London. He
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#1732876482754504-661: The Victoria Cross . As at May 2020, Rookwood Necropolis contains the graves of a total 704 Commonwealth service personnel that are registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission , 435 from World War I and 274 from World War II , besides three Dutch war graves. The commission also erected a memorial to 132 Commonwealth service personnel of World War II who were cremated at Rookwood Crematorium and whose ashes remain here. Four Japanese Imperial Navy crewmen of midget submarines M-14 and M-21 who died in
546-432: The "premier perjurer of our public life and the champion criminal of the continent". After he had been whipped, Norton responded by firing three shots at Meagher with a revolver. Both men were charged with assault at Central Police Court; Meagher was fined £5 and Norton was found not guilty. Norton represented Northumberland , from 1899 to 1901; Surry Hills , from 1904 to 1906; and Darling Harbour from 1907 to 1910. He
588-735: The Concord Military Hospital in Sydney. The British war graves within the cemetery are of servicemen who died as prisoners of war in Japanese hands and had been cremated; after the war, their ashes were brought to Sydney and buried here. Here is also buried a civilian employee of the Admiralty and there is one French war grave. Within the entrance building is the New South Wales Cremation Memorial, which commemorates 199 service personnel of World War II who were cremated within
630-521: The Necropolis was also being referred to by that name. The settlement of Rookwood changed its name in 1913 to Lidcombe , as a blend of two mayors' names, Lidbury and Larcombe (Larcombe was also a monumental stonemason whose business, 'Larcombe Memorials' exists to this day). The cemetery retained the name Rookwood. The name Rookwood is most likely an accidental or deliberate corruption of the name Brookwood Cemetery and its associated railway station . At
672-589: The St Michael the Archangel Chapel and various cottages for section managers and sextons . Originally known simply as the Necropolis ( Koine Greek meaning "city of the dead"), local residents lobbied officials to have the name of their village changed from Haslem's Creek due to its association with the cemetery. In 1879, the villagers got their wish and the area's name was changed to Rookwood; however, before long,
714-599: The World War II Attack on Sydney Harbour during 31 May–8 June 1942 were cremated with naval honours at Rookwood Cemetery. The ashes were returned to Japan later that year. Within the grounds of Rookwood Cemetery is enclosed the CWGC's Sydney War Cemetery , whose entrance is on the west side on the necropolis railway. It was established in 1942 during World War II for service personnel and there are now 732 buried or commemorated by name here. Most of those buried here died at
756-477: The bulk of his estate to his 9-year-old daughter, Joan. The estate seemed to many to be greatly undervalued, even though it was presented for probate at £106,000 (equivalent to $ 12,090,000 in 2022). Mrs Ada Norton persuaded the New South Wales Parliament to backdate the new Testator's Family Maintenance Act to take effect before Norton's death. Under this legislation, she succeeded in having his will rewritten in 1920 so that she and Ezra Norton each received
798-571: The cemetery were demolished. Cemetery Station No. 1 at the head of the rail spur was sold to Reverend Buckle for £100 in 1951 and was moved to Canberra in 1957 to become the All Saints Church, Canberra . Rookwood Cemetery gave rise to the phrase "crook as Rookwood", meaning chronically ill, as "crook" is Australian slang for being unwell. A novel by Chris Nyst published in 2005 uses the phrase as its title. Rookwood Cemetery has or had several notable interments, including three recipients of
840-477: The cemetery. At the terminus inside the cemetery the coffins were unloaded using 'wheeled hand-propelled litters' The rail line was used to convey funeral parties to Rookwood until 1948 when the expanded use of processions by road made it obsolete. The stations were offered to the Joint Committee of Necropolis Trustees for the price of £1 but due to maintenance costs the offer was rejected and the platforms within
882-538: The community. Those trusts are: Rookwood General Cemeteries Reserve Land Manager (Rookwood General Cemetery) and the Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria. The NSW Cremation Company, which founded and operates The Rookwood Memorial Gardens Crematorium, is the oldest operating crematorium in Australia. The NSW Cremation Company is the only private company operating a 'cemetery' section within the Necropolis grounds. Today
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#1732876482754924-629: The company is part of the InvoCare company. Rookwood also contains a number of memorial shrines including those dedicated to victims of The Holocaust and to members of the merchant marines killed in wartime. The Sydney War Cemetery is located in the eastern section of the Necropolis. The Circle of Love is a shrine dedicated to stillborn children or those who died in young infancy. There are 915,000 people (figures as at 31 December 2014) that have been buried and cremated at Rookwood, which covers an area of 314 hectares (780 acres). The "Friends of Rookwood Inc"
966-457: The floor of the chamber in view of members. Norton featured in one of the most "sensational" incidents Sydney had ever witnessed back on 21 September 1898. Norton's bitter rival and fellow politician, Richard Meagher (1866–1931), member for Tweed , horsewhipped Norton in Sydney's busy Pitt Street in front of hundreds of bystanders following Norton's labelling him "Mr. Mendax Meagher" in his Truth newspaper. Norton also described Meagher as
1008-525: The incident always remained. John Norton is recognised as coining the Australian word ' wowser ', for one whose overdeveloped sense of morality drives them to deprive others of their pleasures; a person regarded as excessively puritanical; a killjoy. He is mentioned as the inventor of this word in the Macquarie Dictionary . "I invented the word myself," he wrote. "I was the first man publicly to use
1050-464: The magistrate and parliamentarian Henry Grattan Douglass in 1833 and subsequently leased out. The site was approved due to its relative isolation and proximity to the railway line. The cemetery was then divided into sections for the various denominations according to their numbers in the 1861 census. The Church of England section was 21 hectares, the Catholic Church was allocated 14 hectares and
1092-428: The mourners were known as 'unimproved Redferns' There were two types of Hearse carriages used for the procession. One consisted of a four-wheeled van that carried up to 10 coffins on its upper and lower shelves. Each of these shelves was designed so it could open onto the platform. There were also eight-wheeled vans that could hold 30 coffins. Both of these vehicles were attached the back of the train for transporting to
1134-532: The necropolis, including endangered native species such as Downy wattle and small leaved Dillwynia ( Dillwynia parvifolia ). The Serpentine Canal within the Rookwood General Cemeteries Reserve Land Manager was restored in recent years, repairing and replacing ornamentation, landscaping and vegetation over 31 hectares (77 acres) of the cemetery. In 1819, Governor Lachlan Macquarie established Sydney's main burial ground near
1176-454: The necropolis, with a fourth at the main junction and a fifth on Regent Street adjacent to Central station . The railway line construction began in November 1864 and from 1 January 1865, trains began their run into the cemetery. It stopped at prearranged stations on the journey from central Sydney to pick up mourners and coffins. Trains ran at 9.30 am and 3 pm. The trains that carried
1218-520: The physician had even viewed the body. Norton held on to Grohn's death certificate for two years until he finally registered the death in 1904. These details emerged in 1906, and the police immediately requested that Grohn's death be investigated by the City Coroner. Grohn's body was exhumed from its grave at Rookwood Cemetery for an autopsy. The 1906 inquest into Grohn's death produced an open finding due to lack of medical evidence, but serious doubts over
1260-409: The stairs, but the investigating police and others believed Norton had hit him on the head with a bottle, killing him instantly. Norton was alleged to have organised a Randwick physician named Dr. Osborne H. Reddall to issue a death certificate stating Grohn had died of "natural causes". It was also alleged that the death certificate was written out while Dr. Reddall was in Truth' s Sydney office, before
1302-470: The time of Rookwood's opening, Brookwood Cemetery, located in Brookwood, Surrey , England, was one of the largest cemeteries in the world. It is less likely that, as claimed by some sources, Rookwood was named after William Harrison Ainsworth 's novel Rookwood , written in 1834. Rookwood was served by a rail spur from the main line from 1867 until 1948. Mortuary stations served each of the three sections of
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1344-618: The town's brickworks. By the 1840s, the Devonshire Street Cemetery was close to being full so another larger site was needed. A location on the Sydney Common was chosen in 1845, but abandoned in 1859 without ever being used due to complaints from local residents and churches. In Australia, as in Europe, there was an increasing trend to move burial sites outside of the cities for practical, hygienic and other more aesthetic purposes. With
1386-548: The word. I first gave it public utterance in the City Council, when I applied it to Alderman G. J. Waterhouse, whom I referred to as the white, woolly, weary, watery, word-wasting wowser from Waverley". An early instance of the word as a term of approbation is found in Norton's Truth of 8 April 1900. Norton served for nearly 12 years in the N.S.W. Legislative Assembly and made many enemies among other politicians. Conversely, he
1428-671: Was a chronic alcoholic and suffered from megalomania for most of his adult life. John Norton died at a private hospital in Melbourne of uremia , a symptom of kidney failure , on 9 April 1916. He had been seriously ill for some months and had been in a coma for a week before his death. His wife, son and daughter were at his bedside when he died. His body was returned to Sydney for burial. On 15 April 1916, huge crowds attended his funeral service at St James' Church and later at his elaborate burial at South Head Cemetery . In his will John Norton disinherited his wife Ada and son Ezra and left
1470-481: Was a pauper, 18-year-old John Whalan, buried on 5 January 1867. This burial was not recorded in the burial register. The first official burial was recorded in the Roman Catholic area: a 14-month-old toddler, Catherine McMullen, on 7 January 1867. By 1879, more land was needed and the remaining 233 hectares of the former "Hyde Park" were then purchased. By the 1890s the cemetery was home to several buildings including
1512-451: Was also elected three times as a Sydney alderman between 1898 and 1906. He ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1901 and 1906. Norton married Ada McGrath (1871–1960) on 29 April 1897 at St James' Church, Sydney . They had a son, Ezra Norton (1897–1967). Ten years later they had a daughter, Joan Norton (1907–1940). Initially, the family lived at Watsons Bay but by 1905 they had moved to
1554-645: Was buried in the Norton family plot at South Head Cemetery. She left an estate valued at £71,146.00 to her mother Ada and her brother Ezra Norton . Ada Norton remarried in Paddington , London, in early 1920 to Reginald George Culhane, and was subsequently known as Mrs Ada Norton-Culhane. She died aged 88 at Vaucluse, New South Wales on 21 June 1960 and is buried at the Norton family plot at South Head Cemetery. Her husband, Reginald Culhane, died on 24 May 1975 at Darlinghurst . Rookwood Cemetery Rookwood Cemetery (officially named Rookwood Necropolis )
1596-483: Was editor of the paper from 1921 to 1930. The paper was sold to John Fairfax and Sons in 1958. The paper became The Sportsman in 1960 and is still in publication. It is now devoted to all forms of racing. It is currently published by Nationwide News Pty Ltd. The Sydney Sportsman can be viewed at the State Library of New South Wales , and the National Library of Australia . The paper has been digitised as part of
1638-776: Was not a workers' paradise. He attended a trade union congress in Hull and spoke in French to one in Paris. On his return, Norton became editor of the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate , but was sacked for drunkenness after a few months. Within a few weeks of its establishment in August 1890, he then joined Truth , which favoured exposé articles. He soon became its editor and in April 1891 he altered its masthead to claim proprietorship, but
1680-676: Was sacked as editor for repeated drunkenness. He became the owner of the Sydney newspaper, Truth in 1896 and it became even more abusive of public figures, leading to increased circulation and legal action including trials for criminal libel and sedition , which he generally managed to beat. Similar publications Brisbane Truth , Melbourne Truth and Perth Truth were established by 1903. Norton's staunchly nationalistic paper published many late-19th-century Australian authors such as Henry Lawson . From humble beginnings, John Norton became one of Australia's most successful media figures, and he became fabulously rich. He and his family lived in
1722-490: Was the only son of John Norton, stonemason, who died before he was born. His mother, Mary Davis, in 1860 married Benjamin Timothy Herring, a silk-weaver, who allegedly mistreated his stepson. Norton apparently spent some time in Paris, where he learned to speak French . He claimed to have walked to Constantinople in 1880, where he became a journalist. Norton emigrated to Australia in 1884 and soon became chief reporter on
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1764-542: Was very popular with his constituents. He was initially elected to parliament as the member for Sydney-Fitzroy at a by-election in June 1898 and served until the July 1898 elections. He subsequently became the member for three other Sydney electorates. Redmer Yska, in his book Truth: The Rise and Fall of the People's Paper , states on page 16 that Norton, in a drunken stupor, once urinated on
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