PHOTOGRAPHY
KEW CEMETERY
Located within Boroondara General Cemetery in Kew, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, Springthorpe Memorial, completed in 1901 is “one of Melbourne’s hidden gems. Not a rhinestone, but an over-the-top extravagant diamond from the late-Victorian era. In 1933, The Argus praised it as “the most beautiful work of its kind in Australia.”
When Annie Springthorpe died in 1897 during the birth of her fourth child, her husband, the prominent Melbourne doctor and art collector John Springthorpe, was grief stricken. They had only been married for ten years. Privately he poured his heart out in his diary, but to remember her publicly he commissioned the most impressive memorial at the Boroondara General Cemetery in Kew….
No expense was spared. Dr Springthorpe assembled the all star team of his time: architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear, sculptor Bertram Mackennal and landscape gardener William Guilfoyle.” (Mark Holsworth)
