In October, instead of gathering at our usual meeting venue, we had an outing to the Sorrento Cemetery. We were very lucky to have Joan Hoskins as our guide. Joan has had a long connection with the cemetery sector (her great, great grandfather started the tradition). Joan managed the Sorrento Cemetery as Secretary of the Trust from 2009 until 2019 when the trust handed its care to the Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust. The Sorrento Cemetery Trust was then disbanded. Joan is an absolute wealth of knowledge on all things to do with the Sorrento Cemetery and she was willing and able to answer the amazing variety of questions that were asked of her.

It was a most interesting walk around the (quite undulating) terrain and along the way, Joan talked about notable people buried in the cemetery and the history of some of those people.  Joan explained the fascinating history of how there came to be so many (very elaborate) Chinese headstones in the Cemetery.  Apparently it was discovered that the Feng Shui of the particular area of the Sorrento cemetery showed it to be a very favourable place to be buried and some of the Chinese population were able to obtain these plots even though they came from different places around Victoria.

Joan provided many fascinating facts also showed us some of the more quirky headstones (of which there are quite a number) including the latest “notable” to be buried there – Shane Warne.

Members who attended seemed to enjoy the afternoon (especially as we were fortunate with the weather).  Afterwards we visited the Hotel Sorrento for refreshments which people seemed quite glad of after all the hard work on the Sorrento Cemetery hills!

We are indebted to Joan Hoskins for imparting her knowledge and giving up her time for us.