In Benalla, in the days before widespread ownership of motor cars, the dead were transported by a horse-drawn hearse.
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Mourners joined a cortege on foot or on horseback or in horse-drawn gigs.
Benalla cemetery was only 4 km from town.
If a Benalla family wanted to bury their loved one in Melbourne General Cemetery, they used a coffin carriage.
Until 1938, this carriage was attached to the rear of the morning train from Albury.
The coffin could be loaded on the carriage at any station along the line and mourners caught the same train.
The train then stopped at the railway station in Fawkner Cemetery. This station still exists, but is not in use.
In Rookwood cemetery in Sydney, everything was much grander.
Coo-ee: More Benalla characters
A special spur line ran in a long sweeping arc through this very large cemetery.
By 1908, there were four stations along this arc where mourners disembarked with a coffin.
Formally, these were called Mortuary Receiving Railway Stations.
Each station served the denominational burying area nearest it.
Two cemetery trains with coffin carriages ran daily from Regents St station near the Sydney CBD. The dead travelled free, but mourners paid 5 cents return from Regents St.
No. 1 Mortuary Receiving Railway Station was the grandest by far.
An ornate sandstone station spanned the rail line, so a train entered through arches formed by 12 columns.
It had black and white tiles laid in a tessellated pattern on the floors of the receiving rooms and wide platforms.
Regents St Station where the train left had the same tessellated pattern in its receiving rooms, but the tiles there were pink, ochre and green.
This suggested the train journey was from life to death.
The first arch of No. 1 station bore an angel on each of its constituent columns.
One angel held a trumpet and looked towards an approaching train.
Coo-ee: Benalla before the railway came through
The other hung with its eyes closed holding the book of judgement.
The station was elaborately decorated with cherubs, angels, gargoyles, fruit and foliage.
A bell in the station tower rang to herald an approaching train and rang at 30 minutes and again at five minutes before departure to warn passengers.
Cemetery trains ran to Rookwood stations from 1867 until 1948.
After that, No. 1 station fell into disrepair.
The other three were removed to make room for new graves. The Anglican parish of All Saints in Ainslie in Canberra bought No. 1 station in 1957.
The parishioners dismantled it, numbered the stones and then had them moved to Ainslie where the station was re-erected. It took eighty semitrailer loads.
Where the train traversed the station now forms the main aisle.
The arches at each end have been filled with stained glass windows.
The bell tower was moved from the left side of the entrance to the right.
Purchase price was $200.
Transport, re-erection and modifications of the station cost $48 000.
The angels of judgement now hang over the congregration rather at the entrance.
Editor